AKIKO KONISHI received her early training in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and subsequently completed her undergraduate studies at Rice University as a double major in Music and English. She continued her graduate studies at Yale University and the University of Houston, under the guidance of renowned pianists Peter Frankl and Abbey Simon. She has appeared as soloist with the Shepherd School Symphony (Rice University), D'Angelo Competition Orchestra, Oakland Symphony, Rio Hondo Symphony (California), Symphony North Houston, and the Chicago Federation of Musicians Orchestra, and performs extensively in guest artist venues across the United States. As an active chamber musician, she has performed with members of the Houston Symphony in the Channing Chamber Series, and recently toured Italy and Bulgaria as a winner of the Mercadante International Chamber Music Competition. Her performances have been broadcast on Houston Public Radio’s “The Front Row,” and Italian National TV (RAI). Additional honors include finalist prizes in the Ima Hogg Houston Symphony Concerto Competition and the F. Awerbuch International Piano Competition (New York), as well as grand prizes in the Entergy Young Texas Artist Competition and the Rio Hondo Symphony Concerto Competition (Los Angeles). During the past seasons, she has appeared in a guest artist recital at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and in repeat performances with the Chicago Federation of Musicians Orchestra (Rachmaninoff, Grieg, and Schumann Concertos). Other recent engagements include guest artist recitals in St. Benedict’s Cathedral (Chicago), a collaboration at the jazz venue Hey Nonny Live, and a concerto performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Triton Jazz Ensemble. Dr. Konishi currently teaches Applied Piano and Keyboard Musicianship courses at Triton College in River Grove, IL. Since 2013, she has been on the music faculty of the Chautauqua Institution, a summer music program for advanced collegiate students in New York. She is also a devoted pedagogue to precollegiate students and teaches from her private studio in Chicago. Her students have won numerous awards, most recently in the Young Steinway Concert Series (Skokie), Beethoven with a View Festival (Chicago), American Protégé International Competition (New York), the Musichorale Scholarship Competition (Chicago), and Roberta Savler Memorial Contest (Chicago). A member of the Chicago Area Music Teachers Association since 2014, she will complete her proposal this year on “Piano Transcriptions of the Romantic Era” as a national recipient of the 2016-2017 MTNA Professional Development Grant. She resides in Chicago with her husband and their dog, Shiner.