“Masako Ohta is a poet of the piano” (Münchner Feuilleton)
The Japanese pianist, sound performer, and composer Masako Ohta creates music that transcends boundaries, embracing interdisciplinary and international collaborations.
She enjoys improvising, interpreting, and communicating through keyboard instruments across a wide range of musical partnerships. Her solo piano albums "Poetry Album" (2018), "My Japanese Heart" (2020), nominated for the German Record Critics' Award, and "My Music Garden" (2025) were released by the Winter & Winter label. In 2022, the album "Mmmmh", a collaboration with trumpeter Matthias Lindermayr, was released on the Squama label; it was named one of the top ten jazz albums of 2022 by BR-Klassik and nominated for the German Jazz Prize 2023. The duo’s second album, "Nozomi" (2025), received an award from the German Record Critics' Association.
Masako Ohta has won numerous music and cultural awards, including the Music Advancement Award from the City of Munich (2018/2019). She was nominated for the German Jazz Prize 2026 in the Keyboard Instruments category.
She completed her classical piano studies in Tokyo and Berlin and attended masterclasses with György Sebök, András Schiff, and György Kurtág.
She has lived in Germany since 1985. Adopting a holistic approach, she integrates piano playing with Tai Chi and Japanese calligraphy in her teaching and conducts masterclasses and workshops worldwide.
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Masako Ohta chooses a haiku by Matsuo Basho as the motto for her musical garden: For a while moonlit night over flowers. Ohta opens with "In a landscape" by John Cage and leads over to "Clair de lune" by Claude Debussy with the Intermezzo, Nº 2, A major by Johannes Brahms. Pattern B "Yabe" from Patterns of Plants by Japanese composer Mamoru Fujieda is just as much a part of her journey into the infinite nature of sounds as Fumio Yasuda's "Rain Forrest" and "Souvenir from Japan, Sakura for Piano" by Toshio Hosokawa. Masako Ohta combines classical music from Schubert, Mozart, Chopin and Zimmermann with contemporary Japanese sounds to create a poetic work of fine and sensitive timbres. With "My Music Garten", Masako Ohta releases her third piano solo album on Winter & Winter. For the recordings, Ohta retreated to a solitary forest house in the Bavarian Forest, far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, to be inspired by silence and nature. This album is the result of her intensive study of poetry, sound and music from her native Japan and her adopted home in the West. Masako Ohta lives in Munich and performs all over the world, often in collaboration with actors, dancers, poets and visual artists.
Informationen: "My Music Garden" (deutsch)
information: "My Music Garden" (english)