Faculty:
THEORY/COMPOSITION/SONGWRITING: Beginner to Advanced
PIANO: Beginner to Intermediate
[Email Me] Yoko is happy to be back in Washington, DC this summer, after more than 20 years of living overseas. Dr. Wylegala was born and raised in Tokyo. She started her piano lessons at age four and began her academic music studies while in Mexico City. She entered the music academy located in the capital known as the Centro de Investigation y Estudio Musicales (CIEM), an affiliate of London’s Associated Board of Royal School of Music (ABRSM). After graduating from CIEM, she entered the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica, Section Superior, in Lima, Peru, where she further studied composition. Following intensive music studies and concert experience in Berlin, Germany, she received her Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Hong Kong in 2015.
In addition to the degree course above, Yoko worked in composition at the Institute Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana, Cuba, Universitaet der Kunst, HfM, Hanns Eisler, experimental music-theater classes at the Institut fuer neue Musik, UdK, Berlin, and aesthetic studies at the University of Tokyo. Yoko gained further composition skills at the International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt (Germany) in 2004 and 2007, Karlheinz Stockhausen Summer Courses in Kürten (Germany) in 2004 and 2011, Internationale Sommerakademie Prag, Wien, Budapest 2003 organized by the Universitaet für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Wien, among others. In the field of the film music, Dr. Wylegala completed a summer course from the SFI Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program conducted by Hummie Mann in Seattle, WA, (2008) and the Hollywood film orchestrator, Steven Scott Smalley’s film orchestration course in NYC, (2006). Her original film score for “My Life in A Box” was premiered in the Broadway cinema of Hong Kong in 2012.
Yoko music, which includes solos, ensembles, choral and orchestral pieces has been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Moscow, Washington DC, Mexico City, Lima, Dresden, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Berlin.“Fanfare Liebes OBM” (2016) for Orchestra was written for OBM’s (Orchester Berliner Musikfreund) special 150-year anniversary concerts. The premier of this piece took place in the Philharmonie Großer Saal, Berlin and performed again in the Konzerthaus at the Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin, Germany 2016. “Welcome to Dodoland” (2008) for Orchestra and Tenor Saxophone was performed also in the Berliner Philharomie’s Kammermusiksaal in 2008. In 2007, The Japan-German Center in Berlin sponsored a concert composed by Dr. Wylegala. Overture “Voyage” (2010) for Orchestra was performed by the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra in the Beijing Opera House and Shanghai Grand Theater in 2010. “DUO” for two flutes (2016) was the commissioned work written for the recital in Tokyo at the Tokyo Opera City, Japan in 2016.
In 2015, “Iluminacion de la Rana” (2006) received the Special Achievement in the Art of the Concert from The American Prize in Composition in the Orchestral Division, professional composer category. Also this piece received a prize in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Songs (JPF Music Award 2009, Nashville TN). “B isst Eis” for orchestra was selected as a finalist in 2014; “Voyage” for orchestra was selected as a semi-finalist in 2016 from The American Prize in composition professional division. Yoko actively seeks new commissioned pieces, among one is scheduled for a 2018 premier in Tokyo.
Yoko's teaching style is student-oriented. She focuses on what individual students want and need in music studies, and supports them to meet their goals in the fields of piano, composition, and music theory. Notably, she gravitates to adult students starting new challenges, because she, herself, was a latecomer to composition and has an affinity for this type of learner. She believes that there is no age limit for musical challenges. One’s life experiences serve to deepen the product, she believes.
Languages: Japanese, English and Spanish
Original Composition by Yoko Wylegala: