MIMI FURUYA

Cellist Mimi Furuya has performed widely and received numerous awards for her playing. She started cello studies at age 7, and an year later gave a phenomenal debut as soloist with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, receiving outstanding reviews. She has performed at Chopin’s House (Valldemosa, Spain), The United Nations (NY), Partika Saal (Düsseldorf, Germany), Kilbourn Hall (Rochester, NY), De Lamar Mansion (NY), Lincoln Center’s C. Michael Paul Hall and Alice Tully Hall, among others.

She made concert tours of Western Europe and has been broadcast on Harvard Radio. Mimi has also appeared as soloist with the Yonkers Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, and the California Youth Symphony with the Elgar Concerto. The winner of numerous prizes and awards, she has won Second-Prize at The 41st International Sorantin Competition, Third-Prize and Rosemary Scales Memorial Cello Prize for “Outstanding Cello Performance” at the Kingsville International Competition, First-Prize at the NY American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Solo Competition, and First-Prize at the California Youth Symphony Concerto Competition.

A prize-winning composer, Mimi’s orchestral and chamber music works have been performed by the Juilliard Orchestras and the American Brass Quintet at such venues as The Juilliard Theater, C. Michael Paul Hall, and Hellman Hall. She received a Composition Award from the US National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Mimi holds a Pre-College Diploma from The Juilliard School where she studied for 8 years, and a B.M. from the Eastman School of Music. The recipient of a DAAD Fellowship (German Academic Exchange Service), she studied at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany.

SAKIKO FURUYA

Ever since her recital debut in California at age 8, Pianist Sakiko Furuya has delighted audiences with her virtuosity. She has performed extensively in the US and Europe at such locales as Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, C. Michael Paul Hall and Morse Recital Hall, The United Nations (NY), Merkin Concert Hall (NY), Chopin’s House (Valldemosa, Spain), Wiener Saal and Lehrerhaus (Austria), Chopin Kosciuszko Foundation (NY), Lehman Hall at Harvard University, Kilbourn Hall (Rochester, NY), Stanford University’s Dinkelspiel Auditorium, De Lamar Mansion (NY), and Steinway Hall.

Sakiko has been a featured performer in the Salzburg Seminar Series at Schloß Leopoldskron (Salzburg, Austria) and the Young Artist Series at Old Westbury Gardens in Long Island. She has given numerous concerts in Spain, France, and Italy. She was broadcast on WQXR’s “The Young Artist Showcase” and Harvard Radio (WHRB). Her performances have been telecast on FCI New York and in San Remo, Italy. Sakiko was also featured in The New York Times.

She has won first prizes at many solo and concerto competitions in New York, as well as top prizes awarded by the US National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts and the Gina Bachauer Memorial Scholarship Competition at Juilliard. Her compositions have been performed several times at Paul Hall at Juilliard. She has appeared as soloist with the Bloomingdale Chamber Orchestra, the Yonkers Philharmonic, and the Chappaqua Orchestra.

Upon completing a 4-year high school education in 3 years with a 4.0 GPA, Sakiko obtained her B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School, acquiring both degrees in 5 years. She also holds a Pre-College Diploma from The Juilliard School. She spent two years in Austria studying at the Mozarteum and the University of Salzburg.

HARUMI FURUYA

Violinist Harumi Furuya began violin studies at the age of 2, thanks to her dedicated mother Atsuko Shidehara Furuya. Upon graduating from The Juilliard School Pre-College, she received A.B. with highest honors in History from Harvard University, M.Phil in European Studies from University of Cambridge where she was Harvard’s Paul Williams Scholar at John Harvard’s alma mater Emmanuel College, and PhD in Government from Harvard University. She also studied at the Sciences Po Paris, and holds a Certificat Pratique de Français Commercial et Economique and Diplôme Supérieur de Français des Affaires from the Chambre de Commerce de Paris. She pursued violin studies in Boston, London, Paris, and Berlin alongside her academic studies at Harvard, Cambridge, Sciences Po Paris, and Humboldt University. She has made solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral appearances at Carnegie Hall, Paul Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, Dvorak Hall in Prague, Liszt Academy in Budapest, Royal British Legion in Cambridge, and Westminster Abbey in London. Her compositions have been performed several times at Paul Hall at Juilliard.

As an academic, Dr. Furuya has received numerous awards and fellowships, including Kenneth Colton Prize in History for “outstanding undergraduate work in history,” Harvard; Senior Oliver-Dabney Prize in History for “the top graduating woman in history,” Harvard; First Prize, United Nations 50th Anniversary Massachusetts College Essay Competition; Harlan M. Smith “Builders of a Better World” First Prize Award from the U.S. World Federalist Association; Jeremy Belknap Prize for “the best French composition written by a first-year student,” Harvard; John Harvard Scholarship for Rank I GPA, Harvard; First Prize, Institute for German-American Relations for essay on Fr. Wendelin Gruber’s fight against genocide in Tito’s Yugoslavia; DAAD Königswinter Scholarship for doctoral study at Humboldt University; Swedish Institute Bicentennial Scholarship; National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship; German Marshall Fund of the United States Dissertation Research Fellowship; Harvard Graduate Society Award; American-Scandinavian Foundation Thord-Gray Memorial Fellowship; Center for European Studies Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Harvard; and Project on Justice, Welfare, and Economics Dissertation Fellowship, Harvard.

Her academic publications include “Japan’s Racial Identity in the Second World War: The Cultural Context of the Japanese Treatment of POWs,” in Japanese Prisoners of War, eds. Philip Towle et al. (London: Hambledon and London Press, 2000) pp.117-134; “Ideology vs. Realpolitik: Nazi Racism Toward the Japanese and the German-Japanese Alliance,” in Nachrichten der Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Vol. 157-8 (Hamburg University Press, 1995) pp.17-73 (this article evoked a 1000-word review in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in its Academia Section: “Die überfällige Erledigung der Legende vom ‘Ehrenarier’” [The Overdue Settlement of the ‘Honorary Aryan’ Legend] by Uwe Schmidt, 11 September 1996); and “Tolerance: Bringing It Home,” in Boston Herald, 12 March 1995—the winning entry of the United Nations College Essay Competition. Harumi received her PhD in Government from Harvard in the sub-field of Comparative Politics of Western Europe, upon completion of her 500+ page PhD dissertation entitled “Frame Politics: The Politics of Ideas in Immigration Policymaking in Germany, Sweden, and France,” 2006. For her academic tutoring and teaching, see a feature: Spotlight on Thumbtack (March 2015). In November 2014, Harumi published an article about violinist Louis Kaufman in The Juilliard Journal: “Louis Kaufman, the Juilliard Violinist in Gone with the Wind.”