Pianist  •  Interdisciplinary Artist  •  Educator  •  Curator

Megumi Masaki is a Japanese Canadian pianist, interdisciplinary artist, educator, and curator. Her work brings together music, image, movement, technology, and community. Through creation, performance, artistic research, and collaboration, she explores how music and listening can expand artistic expression and deepen engagement with our shared world.

Over four decades, Masaki has co-created more than 80 interdisciplinary works through long-standing collaborations with composers, visual artists, writers, scientists, Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, and communities. Her performances integrate live electronics, interactive video, motion tracking, artificial intelligence, game technologies, and e-textiles. These works reimagine the piano, the role of the performer, and the experience of live performance.

Her international project HEARING ICE explores the environmental and cultural consequences of changing ice through new works for piano and multimedia, developed in collaboration with scientists, artists, and communities. HEARING INDIGO, created with Ryukyuan dyeing and weaving artist Akiko Ishigaki, investigates relationships among sound, textiles, cultural memory, and place. Both projects reflect her belief that attentive listening can connect different ways of knowing and cultivate more responsible relationships with one another and the living world.

Masaki has premiered more than 180 works and presented performances, research, and curatorial projects in more than 25 countries. Her appearances include the Barbican Centre in London, IRCAM/Centre Pompidou in Paris, Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík, ISCM World New Music Days, the International Symposium on Electronic Art, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Music in PyeongChang, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Ottawa Chamberfest, and the Winnipeg New Music Festival.

Her recordings include MUSIC4EYES+EARS, TRANSFORMATION, and the forthcoming HEARING ICE. A long-standing advocate for the music of Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, she has recorded the composer’s piano works and complete works for violin and piano and published a critical performance edition of her Piano Caprices. She also appeared as a researcher and pianist in the award-winning documentary Appassionata: The Extraordinary Life and Works of Eckhardt-Gramatté directed by Paula Kelly.

Masaki is Professor of Piano at Brandon University and Visiting Professor of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She directs the Brandon University New Music Ensemble, founded and curates the Brandon University New Music Festival. She is Artistic Director of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition since 2006, and was Director of Music at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2023 and 2024.

An internationally sought-after teacher and mentor, Masaki has presented masterclasses and lectures at the University of Oxford, the University of York, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the China Conservatory of Music, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and other institutions throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. She teaches at Chetham’s International Piano Summer School in the UK, Musiktage am Rhein in Germany, and the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Italy. Her teaching emphasizes creative curiosity, technical excellence, artistic independence, and meaningful engagement with contemporary musical life.

Masaki’s commitment to equity and structural change extends across her artistic leadership. In collaboration with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and artists, she established the Brandon University Indigenous New Music Festival. She serves as Director-at-Large on the National Board of the Canadian Music Centre and its Accountability for Change Council, and is part of Witness, a national working group on structural change in university music programs convened by xwélmexw (Stó:lō/Skwah) scholar Dylan Robinson.

Her research and creative projects have been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, FACTOR, and national and international partners.

Masaki’s honours include the 2026 Violet Archer Lifetime Achievement Award, the Brandon University Senate Award for Excellence in Research, the Brandon University Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Brandon University Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Community Service, and the Willi Daume Prize from the German Olympic Institute. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Member of the Order of Manitoba.