Yoko Yates, pianist and composer, was born in Sapporo City, Japan. She began her keyboard study at age four and was always exposed to variety of music in a music-loving family. In addition to her ongoing classical piano studies, as a student at Hokkaido University of Education, her interest towards “art” education motivated her to study more improvisational music and to find innovative approaches which nurture sensibilities and creativity of people in the US. She was awarded the Cultural Merit Scholarship from Sapporo City and the Professional Music scholarship from Berklee College of Music to further her studies in Boston. Graduating from Berklee with a Bachelor of Arts in Music, she went on to receive a Master’s degree in Education from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. She then continued her studies at Columbia University, Teachers College in New York for doctoral study in music education, where she was awarded a teaching assistantship and Minority Scholarship.

Yoko has been a member of the piano faculty at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and Greenwich House Music School in Manhattan since 1996, along with teaching at numerous other schools. All through her schooling and teaching years, she has maintained a performing career as a pianist and sometimes as a vocalist, and has been particularly active as a composer in recent years. She has been contributing music to film, media and literacy events, which have been showcased at international film festivals and “Reuters Business Weekly.” Her album “Mystic Life” was released by SteepleChase LookOut in April 2022.