Music Excellence Project

Our vision

The goal of this project is to offer physical and arts education that will enable each pianist to offer performances of creativity and vitality over the course of lifetime, thereby contributing to the nurturing and sustainability of a culturally enriched society and musical expression.

Academy Program

 The Project's first study forum is the Academy Program, beginning on August 1, 2020. Combining physical and arts education in the world’s first holistic piano study program for young musicians, the Academy Program will enable students to pursue excellence in musical expression and the sustainable development of skills as they pursue artistic maturity.

The Academy Program seeks to achieve a seamless integration of research and development with personal guidance by combining Physical Education for Artist Curriculum (PEAC) and Arts Education. PEAC is based on the results from the study on "Musical Dynaformics," a scientific framework for elucidating the mechanisms that underlie the acquisition and loss of high-level sensorimotor behaviors.

The Program systematically identifies issues that become clear during training and generates solutions to address each issue. In this way, challenges that would otherwise remain obscure are made clear to the student.

Physical Education Program: Study Transformed by Cutting-Edge Technologies

One key feature of the Physical Education Program is Musical Dynaformics. To support the mastery of technique and good practice, cutting-edge, high-precision sensing technologies are used to evaluate skills and generate recommendations for sensorimotor function training. Meanwhile the Physical Education for Artist Curriculum (PEAC), which draws on knowledge in the realms of kinesiology and neuroscience, guides students to an awareness of their movement habits and posture during a performance. This enables students to optimize the way they use their body, and to master practice methods efficiently and effectively.

Organizer: Shinichi Furuya

Shinichi Furuya has been a researcher at Sony CSL since April 2017. His previous positions included associate professor at Sophia University; the same university's Musical Skill and Injury Center Director; guest professor at the Institute for Music Physiology and Musician's Medicine at Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media; as well as lecturer at Kyoto City University of Arts, at Tokyo College of Music, and at Elisabeth University of Music. At Osaka University, Japan, he studied mechanical engineering (BSc), biomechanics and exercise physiology (MS), and motor neuroscience (PhD). He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Kansei Gakuin University (Japan), the University of Minnesota (USA), and Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media (Germany). He was a recipient of the Leading Initiative for Excellent Young Researchers (LEADER) award from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). He was awarded the Susanne Klein-Vogelbach-Prize for the Research of Human Movement 2019. He himself is a prize-winning pianist who has competed in a number of professional piano competitions in Japan.

Arts Education Program: A World-Class Education

The Arts Education Program offers a world-class education, featuring the globally renowned pianist Dina Yoffe as Musical Director and lessons from six highly accomplished pianists who perform internationally. Dina Yoffe is a master trainer who has won international acclaim over many years of performing and musical guidance. Her former students include top pianists on the global stage. Learning directly from Dina Yoffe will greatly accelerate the development of teen pianists as they explore their musical potential.

Musical Director: Dina Yoffe

Top prize-winner at the Schumann and Chopin International Piano Competitions. Participant at international music festivals in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Honorary member of the Japan Piano Teachers Association. Artistic Director of the Festival and Master Classes "Musical Summer" in Malaga (Spain). Originally from Riga (Latvia), Yoffe graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music in Moscow under the tutelage of Prof. Vera Gornostaeva, one of the most important proponents of the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus school. She has served as a judge in such international piano competitions as Hamamatsu (Japan), Chopin (Warsaw), and Liszt Competition (Weimar). Currently, she is Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory Liceu in Barcelona (Spain), Professor at the Talent Music Masters Academy in Brescia (Italy), and Visiting Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music (China). Her students have won national and international piano competitions. Many of them are teaching in music academies in the United States, Japan, and Europe. 

http://www.dinayoffe.com/

Students

inaugural class (selected based on auditions*)

Riko Ando, Tomoya Otaki, Yuuto Yamazaki, Yuuki Kimoto, Aiko Shimada, Kisara Yonemitsu, Rin Suzuki, Kotaro Watanabe, Yuu Matsuoka

Staffs

Musical Director: Dina Yoffe

Assistant Lecturers: Yuhi Ozaki, Takuya Tainaka, Mami Nishio, Hiroko Matsushita, Yui Yoshioka, Masaru Yoshitake

Lecturer: Arimune Yamamoto (KAWAI Europe)

Technical Support: Takanori Oku, Hayato Nishioka, Masato Hirano (Sony CSL)

Operations: Aya Fujita (Sony CSL)

 

Organizer: Shinichi Furuya (Sony CSL)

Cooperation: Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)

Contact

mea-pr@csl.sony.co.jp

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