What do you need to feel at home whilst on tour? I need my Agatha Christie Poirot Collection DVD`s and my favourite teas. What is the best thing about being a musician? Getting to know people from all over the world and being able to create and share great moments together. If you could play another instrument what would it be? I would be a pop/jazz singer.
The first piece of music you fell in love with: Chopin’s Polonaise for piano. The recording I heard, and still have, was played by Arthur Rubinstein whom I absolutely and utterly admire.
What would you do if you weren't a musician? I would be one, or all of three things: a sculptor, a writer or a figure skater.
BIOGRAPHY Born in Kamakura, Japan, Mizuho Yoshii began her musical education learning solfège at the Toho Gakuen School of Music for Children. At the age of fourteen, she began learning the oboe privately with Hiroyuki Iguchi. Subsequent teachers include Yoshiaki Obata at the Tokyo University of Arts, Thomas Indermühle and Jacques Tys at the Karlsruhe Hochschule für Musik (where she graduated with distinction), and Maurice Bourgue at the Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve. During her time as a member of Karajan Akademie and subsequent work as an extra player for the Berliner Philharmoniker, she studied with Albrecht Mayer.
Mizuho has been the recipient of many prizes and awards, including first place and special prize at the 66th Music Competition of Japan, as well as prizes at the Isle of Wight International Oboe Competition and the Japan Wind and Percussion Competition. Her studies abroad were partly funded by The Nomura Cultural Foundation and Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan and the Karajan Foundation.
Since 2000, Mizuho Yoshii has held the position of principal oboe with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. As guest principal oboist, she has played with a variety of orchestras including Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, hr-Sinfonieorchester (formerly Radio Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt), Budapesti Fesztivàlzenekar, Bamberger Symphoniker, Saito Kinen Orchestra and Mito Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with many leading conductors including Claudio Abbado, Gunter Wand, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Boulez and Daniel Harding.
Mizuho Yoshii is equally at home on the solo platform, having performed recitals to critical acclaim in both Japan and Europe, in venues such as the Toppan Hall, Opera City, Tokyo, and the Salzburger Festspiele. She is also actively involved in chamber music, and most recently, as a member of Oboe Five.
Mizuho Yoshii monthly writes a series of articles for Pipers, a Japanese magazine specializing in wind instruments, entitled Mizuho Yoshii’s Letters from Europe since 7 years.
Mizuho Yoshii regularly teaches as an assistant to Prof. Thomas Indermühle at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe.
