About Brioso Music Academy

Brilliant & Virtuosic

At Brioso Music Academy, our experienced and dedicated teachers provide students of all ages and goals with world-class instruction tailored to each student’s individual needs to ensure their learning experience is as positive and effective as possible. The goal of music education should be to foster and develop a lifelong love and appreciation for the arts to enrich people’s lives. Brioso in Italian means “lively and cheerful.” The sound of brioso overlaps with the sound of two words, brilliant and virtuoso. We named our school “Brioso” to express our desire to bring vibrant music and life to everyone involved with Brioso Music Academy and to create a learning environment where every student can shine.

BMA offers one-on-one private lessons, group lessons for beginners, and ensemble lessons. Piano lessons are offered in English and
Japanese, and violin/viola lessons are offered in English, Chinese and Japanese. Graduates of acclaimed music schools, our accomplished faculty members have a deep understanding of various educational systems and connections to help students.
Whether you want to play an instrument, improve your skills, become a professional musician, relearn how to play, or gain experience
in extracurricular activities to attend Ivy League Schools or study abroad. We will support you across all boundaries to achieve your
goal. Student Concerts are held 2~3 times per year, giving students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their hard work.

A Message from Director

Akiko Kikuchi
Director

My career as a musician started in an unusual way. Most musicians begin learning to play an instrument from a young age, while I started playing the double bass when I was in high school and initially had no intention of becoming a musician. From a young age, I spent most of my time studying for university entrance exams and always struggled to balance my studies with club activities.

My life changed when I attended a music festival in the United States three years after graduating from university. I then had the chance to study at a music school in the United States the following year.

It was a series of surprises and new experiences while studying in the United States. One day, I was practicing in the practice room and one of my classmates came in without hesitation and said, “Let’s practice together.” We practiced a difficult orchestra study together, and after finishing he said he had had fun. Until then, I had never had fun while practicing music, and for the first time realized practicing could be enjoyable and rewarding.

My teacher had a rational approach and always gave me precise instructions. When he gave me difficult assignments, he never said, “This is difficult, so practice seriously.” Even if I couldn’t play an assignment well, my teacher didn’t blindly get angry and say it was because I didn’t practice enough. Instead, he would say, “There’s always a reason why you can’t do it well.” and we’d analyze it together and figure out how to solve the problem. He always said, “We happen to be teacher and student now, but when you graduate from here, we will be equal musicians”.
While still studying at the Boston Conservatory, I passed the audition for the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra (HPAC) and returned to Japan. Since then, I have been thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of music education in both the United States and Japan.

Japanese education is good at producing people with high average scores, but in music education I feel strongly that it is more important to develop a student’s strengths to the fullest extent and help them build confidence.

To achieve this, it is important to have fun while learning and practicing. This does not mean that students should only do what they enjoy, but rather finding “fun” and “interest” in even seemingly boring basic exercises or learning complicated pieces that would otherwise give them a headache.

I have learned many wonderful techniques and ways of thinking in the U.S. Together with Brioso’s first-rate faculty members, I sincerely hope to bring them back to the Japanese music world.
I look forward to getting involved in music education and bringing my unique perspective as an active musician.

Akiko Kikuchi, Director

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