The Japanese pianist and visual artist Tomoko Mukaiyama was born in Wakayama. She studied piano at the Musashino College of Music, the University of Indiana and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. In 1991 she won the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Rotterdam, playing Conlon Nancarrow's Sonatina. She has performed with various renowned ensembles, including the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, the London Sinfonietta, the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Since 2000, Mukaiyama has also been making a name for herself as a visual artist, creating various installations for leading festivals such as the Biennale of Sydney, the Yokohama Triennale and the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial. Her motivation is to add a new dimension to the conventional concert experience. Her project For You (2005) was a public piano recital for one person. Wasted was a travelling installation of 12 000 white silk dresses dedicated to fertility, for which the feedback of the audience was used in a concert of Bach's Goldberg Variations. In 2013, her installation FALLING, which she had created with lighting designer Jean Kalman, and Jiří Kylián's dance production EAST SHADOW, which she performed in, were voted among the top three art presentations of that year by the Japanese press. Mukaiyama has collaborated with various film directors, designers, dancers, choreographers and photographers, varying from Ian Kerkhof, Marina Abramovič, industrial outfit MERZBOW to Jirí Kylián and dance troupe Club Guy & Roni. In 2012 she collaborated with choreographer Nicole Beutler to create the dance concert SHIROKURO, which had its Dutch premiere at the Holland Festival in 2013. For the 2014-2015 season she is working on a new dance production with Club Guy & Roni.