Born in 1987 in Hamamatsu, Japan, pianist, chamber musician and musicologist Aiko Kusunoki began learning the piano at the age of six. After obtaining her university diploma in Japan, she moved to Paris to continue her studies at the École Normale de Musique et à la Schola Contorum. She studied piano with Jean Marc Luisada , Marian Rybicki, Gabriel Tacchino, Francis Poulenc’s only disciple. With Tacchino, she learned the traditions and interpretations of French classical music, in the tradition of Poulenc. More recently, she studies piano with Chantal Rieux, and chamber music with Jean Pierre Wallez.
She next began a graduates degree program at the Sorbonne University, Paris IV. Under Sylvie Douche she studied Mélanie Bonis’s piano work, The Legend of Women « Portraits of Women », as well as ancient Greek and Roman and Shakespeare literature, gender in 19th century France, Kant’s musical aesthetics, and Joséphin Péladin’s Rosicrucian Salon. She is committed to promoting modern French music and music by female composers and also adresses issues related to women and gender.
At the Ecole du Louvre, she studied the religious paintings of Giotto di Bondone, known for his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, and the history of Western art.
At the Tel Hai International Piano Master Class in Israel she studied with Dmitry Bashkirov and Alexander Mndoyants, and at the International Academy of Music in Cagliari and Nice she studied with Jacques Rouvier, Akiko Ebi, and Michel Beloff.
She has won numerous top awards at various international piano competitions, such as the Grand Prize IBLA in Italy in 2017. Since then, she participates in numerous competitions in Austria, England, Belgium, Germany, and the United States.
She has collaborated with many musicians in Japan and abroad, and is frequently invited to perform in soloist and chamber music festivals, mainly in Europe as well as all around the world.
Currently, she is also teaching the younger generation, wishing to perfect her knowledge in this domain.
She is an active member of multiple associations such as Friends of Francis Poulenc, Mélanie Bonis, Johannes Brahms. She is also a member of Femmes et Musique, the Société Franco Japonaise des Études sur les Femmes, Paris Club, Association FrancoJaponaise de la Musique Contemporaine and Association Italo-Giapponese