As can be imagined, Tomoko has hundreds of musical memories,
some of which she stores in a small blue velvet photo album. Here is a sampling of those
photo memories.
Tomoko is wearing a long organza white dress as she is
seated playing a grand piano. A tall flower bouquet stands in the background of
the stage where she is performing. This Tokyo concert took place soon after
Tomoko graduated from the University of Tokyo as a music major. There were very
few opportunities at that time for a young woman to have a concert performance.
Tomoko is bundled in a heavy pale coat as she checks her
airplane itinerary. She is leaving family and friends to go to the United
States. She was able to work with the UCLA opera theater to get this
opportunity.
Tomoko is dressed in a pale flowered kimono, playing a board
game at a peer’s home. It’s the Christmas break for the Conservatory of San
Francisco where her friend and Tomoko attend.
Tomoko is being interviewed on KQED television by UCLA
professor Herbert Jan Popper. She is talking about her musical background and
dreams in the U.S. Later in the show she performs Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody A
minor #11 on the studio piano.
Tomoko is talking with renown cellist Pablo Casals at Arizona
State University, where a library is being dedicated to him. He was in his 90s
at the time, and was still performing. Tomoko went with a couple of
Conservatory girl friends to visit Arizona, and see him.
Tomoko’s daughter Beata is a toddler, sitting at her mother’s
piano at home. While Beata became a professional ice skater, she enjoys playing
the piano, and performed at a concert honoring her mother’s piano teaching.
Tomoko and her violinist friend Ernestine Riedel
Chihuaria are accepting bouquets at the
end of one of their concerts. Tomoko met Ernestine in 1968 through the
Peninsula Symphony. Ernestine needed an accompanist at the last minute, and
Tomoko performed with her at the DeYoung Museum. They continued to perform
together for 30 years.
Tomoko is holding a resolution from the San Francisco
Commission on the Status of Women, who recognized her cultural contributions to
the San Francisco area. On either side
are her students, who are smiling at Tomoko’s honor. In their honoring speech,
the commission concluded that Tomoko made it her life’s work to share the joy
and serenity that music offers its listeners, include to homeless individuals
in a Project Homeless Connect event.
