Trumpeter Yukiko Nakagawa was born in Osaka, Japan. She started out learning classical piano at the age of five and began playing trumpet at age 12. Yukiko joined brass bands in junior high school, Tenri high school, and Kinki University and had many tours with these bands in Japan, Korea, and Europe. She joined the â€WMC†competition in the Netherlands, also both of her school bands (including high school and University) got gold prizes in the all Japan Band Competition many times. She made all possible efforts, and developed well.After graduating university, Yukiko worked for one year at “Kurashiki Tivoli Park†in Okayama, Japan as trumpeter and marching conductor. This was the time, when she became interested in Jazz. She worked for another theme park “Parque España†in Mie, Japan for one year before she went to Boston to attend the “Five week Summer Performance Program†at Berklee College of Music. Back in Japan, Yukiko wanted to continue her Jazz studies and she took lessons with Tomonao Hara and Shiro Sasaki, two of Japan’s famous trumpet players.In 2003, Yukiko received a scholarship from Berklee College of Music, and began her studies there in September 2003 and graduated in December 2005. She has been studying with Tiger Okoshi, Dave Santoro, Ed Tomassi, Bernardo Hernandez besides others. At Berklee she joined the “Urban Outreach Jazz Orchestra†which is directed by Lin Biviano. Also she studied arranging, composition with Jackson Schultz and Scott Free. Yukiko had the honor to perform in many concerts at Berklee. She was also leading her own recitals with original compositions and arrangements.
In 2005 she received the Ray Kotwica Award at Berklee College of Music.After graduating from the college, she moved to Germany. Now she lives in Düsseldorf and continues developing her music.
