Yoko Nozaki (born 1948) is a
pianist and
musician specializing in
chamber music. She is married to the
Grammy Award-winning
pianist Emanuel Ax.
Background and career
Nozaki was born in Tokyo, Japan and studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. At age 12, she and her family moved to the
United States as her father, a biochemist, had taken a position at
Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
She entered The Juilliard School in New York City in 1966 when she was 18, studying under
Irwin Freundlich. In 1970 she won the Concert Artists Guild Award and graduated from Juilliard with a bachelor's degree in music. She later completed her master's degree at Juilliard, specializing in piano.
Nozaki has collaborated with husband Emanuel Ax as a piano duo[Jean-Pierre Thiollet, 88 notes pour piano solo, « Solo de duo », Neva Editions, 2015, p.98. ] and other chamber orchestras as a guest artist. She took a brief hiatus from the concert stage in 1979 to raise their children.
Personal life
Nozaki met her husband
Emanuel Ax while both were piano students at Juilliard. They married in 1974
and have two children, Sarah and Joseph. They reside in New York City.
