Rei Sakurai

Staff Accompanist

M.M., Collaborative Piano, Cleveland Institute of Music
B.M., Piano Performance, Roosevelt University

Rei Sakurai has been working as a staff accompanist at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music since fall 2006.

Born in Japan, Sakurai began studying the violin at the age of five and the piano at the age of eleven. Her range of interests in music was wide. She was awarded first prize in song composition at the Japan Junior High School Competition.

She studied with Ludmila Lazar and received her Bachelor's in piano performance at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. She also studied the violin with Cyrus Forough and Yuko Mori. While in Chicago, she performed with vocal students of Dimpna Clarin, Eileen Deneen and Michael Best. At DePaul University, she played for a violin student of Joseph Genualdi. In addition to playing the piano, she was also a local church organist.

While studying for her Master's in piano performance, she decided to transfer to Cleveland Institute of Music to study collaborative piano with Anita Pontremoli. She often played for students of Michael Sachs (trumpet), Steven Witzer (trombone), Jeffrey Irvine (viola) and Franklin Cohen (clarinet).

She has worked as a staff accompanist and a piano instructor at the Music Settlement as well as a staff accompanist at Cleveland Institute of Music after receiving her Master's in collaborative piano.

She has been teaching the piano and violin privately for 15 years. She played with Yoko Moore, a former Cleveland Orchestra violinist, at the Japanese Language School of Cleveland. She also played with George Pope and Sean Gabiel as GPS Trio on WCLV.