Jasmin Arakawa, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Piano

College of the Arts

2023 Awardee

Jasmin Arakawa is a world-renowned pianist, educator and researcher who is widely recognized as a leading specialist in piano performance and research, for which she garners frequent performance and workshop engagements at universities and premier music events worldwide.

Arakawa’s has performed at such iconic venues as Carnegie Hall, Salle Gaveau in Paris and Victoria Hall in Geneva. She has also performed on the BBC, PBS and Radio France. Arakawa has been a soloist with many notable ensembles, including the Philips Symfonie Orkest in Amsterdam, Orquestra Sinfonica de Piracicaba in Brazil, and numerous orchestras in the United States and her native Japan. She also directs the UF International Piano Festival.

“Professor Arakawa’s meaningful contributions to the commercial recording catalogue include four solo CDs with focal points upon women composers, American composers, French composers, and newly composed music,” says Kevin Robert Orr, director of the School of Music in the College of the Arts.
Her research includes a multi-media recording project with renowned producer Joseph Patrych and a research and performance project about how women pianists were impacted by World War II.

Arakawa holds a Doctor of Music and Master of Music in Piano Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. She is a recipient of the 2016 Steinway Top Teacher Award and her extensive master class series has taken her to prestigious institutions worldwide.

“Dr. Arakawa uses her significant platform as a performing artist to advance the ‘globalization of piano performance,’ brilliantly intersecting performance, pedagogy and technology in service to international music education,” Orr says.

Arakawa is sought after as a judge at international and national competitions, including the International Chopin Piano Competition for Latin American Pianists in Peru, the New Orleans Piano Institute Competition and the Beethoven International Piano Competition ASIA in Japan.

“She must also be counted among UF’s most impactful pedagogical innovators during the height of COVID-19, as evidenced by her important invitation to speak about her work at the Pandemic Pedagogy Research Symposium, sponsored by the preeminent institutions of Duke University, Princeton University, University of Michigan, Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania,” Orr says.