Piano Duo Yu & Ai

Formed in June 2003. In the same year, they won the Gold Prize (no Silver Prize awarded) in the Two-Piano Division of the 11th Young Artist Piano Competition, and the Kodama Grand Prize (Grand Prix) at the 12th International Piano Duo Competition. They also received special awards: the TOKYO FM Award and the Bulgarian Dancers and Musicians Union Award. In 2004, they won the Grand Prize in the Duo Advanced Class of the 28th PTNA Piano Competition. Concurrently, they received the Yomiuri Shimbun Award, Senzoku Gakuen Maeda Award, All Nippon Airways Award, and Mikimoto Award. From that time, they began holding solo and piano four-hand concerts in various locations. In 2005, they held a duo recital at Tokyo Matsuo Hall. In the same year, they participated in the Piano Duo Division of the 54th ARD International Music Competition (Munich). In 2006, they participated in the 7th Japan Ensemble Competition and won the Grand Prize among over 100 participating groups. In 2007 and 2009, they recorded the required pieces for the PTNA Competition CDs and performed at the required piece explanation sessions.

Since 2005, they have opened a piano school together, aiming to enjoy lessons with their students, and their students have achieved top prizes in various competitions every year. In addition to solo lessons, they actively provide lessons for two pianos and piano four-hands.