Biography
Sumika was born in Nara, Japan. She started studying the saxophone at the age of thirteen. After studying at the Takamado Art High School she went on to the Soai University Faculty of Music in Osaka, studying under Suwako Iwata and Masahiro Maeda. In Japan she won numerous awards including the prestigious university’s President’s Prize, 3rd prize at the Osaka International Music Competition, and won the saxophone division at the Japan Classical Music Competition.
Then, she moved to France to continue her studies with Philippe Geiss at the Strasbourg music Conservatory. She graduated from the saxophone department with a distinction awarded unanimously by the jury. She won 3 international chamber music competitions as a member of the Avena Saxophone Quartet (Quatuor Avena). In 2020, She finished her master specializing in chamber music at the Haute école des arts du Rhin in Strasbourg, from where her flowering musical career continues to flourish. She is equally passionate about her Youtube channel "Sumika Saxophone”, which has been very successful and currently has around 100,000 subscribers and more than 15 million views.
She released her first CD of the Oto-no series in 2019, Oto-no-Jisho : Dictionary of Sounds, a second CD in 2020, Oto-no Ame : Rain of Sounds, then a third CD in 2021, Oto-no-Ginga : Galaxy of Sounds.
All these works were created by young Japanese composers with whom Sumika collaborated for the making of the CD. All of them promote new original music and enhance the attractiveness of the Soprano Saxophone.
