Tomoko Sugawara

Tomoko Sugawara studied the harp at Tokyo University of the Arts and cultural history at Seijo University, Tokyo. She has been playing the kugo since 1991, and has conducted research and activities in New York, funded by Asian Cultural Council grants in 2007–8, 2014, and 2018–19. She has also received awards from the Dunhuang Foundation (2019 and 2020), and NYC Arts and Cultural Affairs (2020). In 2013 Tomoko founded the Eurasia Consort, which performs music from the Chinese Tang Court (seventh – ninth century), using transcriptions made by musicologists for instruments Tang Court musicians played. In 2018 and 2019, she was a visiting researcher at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she researched Tang Dynasty music and taught the kugo. Tomoko enjoys playing harps from East & West, such as the kugo, the Renaissance harp and the Baroque triple harp.