The Yoko Suzuki Trio at the Backstage Bar, Theater Square. Yoko Suzuki, alto sax; Cliff Barnes, organ; James Johnson III, drums

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Yoko Suzuki is an alto saxophonist working in Pittsburgh and New York City. She started to take classical piano lessons at the age of six and continued on until graduating from high school. Throughout middle school and high school, she also played the trumpet in school brass bands. Then she finally switched to the alto saxophone upon joining a jazz ensemble at Osaka University in Japan, teaching herself jazz theory, improvisation and repertoire. After working as a musician in Osaka, Japan and New York City, she moved to Pittsburgh in 2006. She received an MA in musicology at Rutgers University in 2005 and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh in 2011.

Cliff Barnes, Yoko Suzuki, James Johnson III