Biography

Azusa Ono started learning the saxophone as a member of woodwind band at the age of 10 after starting piano 5 years earlier. She studied in Tokyo at Kunitachi College of Music(BMus), where she learned with Keiji Shimoji and Norihiko Takiue.

In 2008, as a member of MARY saxophone quartet, she has won Second Prize Saxophone Ensemble Contest in Japan. She has also appeared Japanese TV program called “Schola” which is presented by Ryuichi Sakamoto in 2011 and “Musica Piccolino” in 2014 which both were broadcast from NHK.  Also she took part in Brass Orchester in the college and performed with Mark Scatterday from Eastman Wind Emsemble and Francois Boulanger from Orchestre de la Republicaine. And then she has toured eastern-south Asian countries including Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore as a member of the band in the college in 2014. She joined to Saxophone Orchestra which performed in World Saxophone Congress at Strasbourg in 2015. She has participated in masterclass with Jonathan Helton.

She has belonged to a big band called New Tide Jazz Orchestra at the Kunitachi College of Music, and She has won First Prize in Yamano Big Band Jazz Contest as a member of the band in 2012. She leaded the band as a leader and not only as a player, but also as a maneger, she organized to release CD album “New Life – Start in Life -“ (Frolestan) in 2013. Her broad range of the activities in the big band included from concerts for local audience to Tokyo Jazz Festival which is the biggest jazz festival in Japan.

 As a saxophonist, she has experience across various genres from jazz to classical music, and premiering contemporary pieces which crossovers wide range of music.

She is currently studying in Master of Performance at the Royal College of Music with Kyle Horch and performed in Lunchtime Concert at St. Mary Abbots Church. Also she joins in PG quartet. The quartet had concert in Southbank centre and “Rising Star at Cadogan hall” in 2016. She has also been awarded by a Musicians’ Company Lambert Studentship.

Musicians’ Company Award: Lambert Scholarship 2016

Page Updated: 2017