Yoko Suzuki Trio (Japan/ U.S.)

Yoko Suzuki is an alto saxophonist working in Pittsburgh and New York City. She started to take classical piano lessons at the age of six and continued on until graduating from high school. Throughout middle school and high school, she also played the trumpet in school brass bands. Then she finally switched to the alto saxophone upon joining a jazz ensemble at Osaka University in Japan, teaching herself jazz theory, improvisation and repertoire. After working as a musician in Osaka, Japan and New York City, she moved to Pittsburgh in 2006. She received an MA in musicology at Rutgers University in 2005 and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. She has taught a variety of courses including “History of Jazz,” “Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies,” “Introduction to Feminist Theory,” and “Gender and Sexuality in Black Popular Music” at the University of Pittsburgh.