Yukari Sekiya
pianist / composer
Born in Osaka.
She is a musician with a unique performance style that utilizes swells and pauses, who creates vivid, original songs that practically sing themselves.
She started piano at 4, and at 17 made her live performance debut at her brother’s band’s concert, who plays the electric bass She studied jazz at Osaka Junior College of Music, and started performing while in college.
After graduating at the top of her class, she committed to Paul Blay’s music and shifted her career to free improvisation and composing.
- In 2004, she released her first mini-album “a sunset glow” with full original songs as a piano trio.
- In 2008, she provided a song to a video artist, Mr. Izuru Mizutani, for his workshop.
- In 2009, she joined a Russian tour as a member of “Melon All Stars”, a music performers’ collective led by Michihiro Morisada (b). Performed at Olkhon Festa ’09 at Lake Baikal.
- In 2010, she formed the “Yukari Sekia Orchestra”
- In 2011, she released an album “It’s an ordinary love and...” nationwide as her own group “Yukari Sekiya trio with Yuko Tanaka” (a.k.a. Sekichu).
- In 2013, she won the Grand Prix at Kaga Onsenkyo Fest 2013 as “Sekichu” and performed on the main stage.
- In 2020, she started her solo improvisation project “Out of the Window” from her home studio which includes improvisation and landscape.
- In 2023, she started a unit “sepia-avaruutta” with Suomi Morishita (gt).
- In 2024, she had a successful first duo performance with a Polish sax player Adam Pierończyk. She also started a piano trio with Megumi Otsuka (b) and Hiro Omori (ds); and a group “Quantum Standard Quartet” which is co-led by Rabito Arimoto (tp. bcl).
Currently, she works nationwide focusing on seamlessly connecting and deepening improvisation and composition ‒ the abstract and the concrete.
She often collaborates across genres with musicians and performers such as dancers and painters both from Japan and overseas, and is adored by fans in various fields as “music that shakes your emotions”.
She is a part-time lecturer with Osaka College of Music’s Jazz Department.
In the spring of 2025, she released a double album featuring duos with eight musicians “DUETS Till Now, From Here”.
short ver.
Born in Osaka.
She is a musician with a unique performance style that utilizes swells and pauses, who creates vivid, original songs that practically sing themselves.
She released a live recording album as her own group in 2011.
She won the Grand Prix at Kaga Onsenkyo Fest 2013.
She works nationwide focusing on collaborations across genres with performers and artists from both Japan and overseas, her solo project“Out of the Window”which includes improvisation and landscape, seamlessly connecting and deepening improvisation and composition ‒ the abstract and the concrete.
Her music is adored, not only by music fans, but also in various fields as“music that shakes your.“
She is a part-time lecturer with Osaka College of Musicʼs Jazz Department.
In the spring of 2025, she released a double album featuring duos with eight musicians “DUETS Till Now, From Here”.
