Muneko Otani Oya

Muneko Otani is currently a Music Associate of Columbia University; faculty of Bennington Summer Festival, the Mannes College of Music as assistant to Lewis Kaplan, and has taught at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg.

As the first violinist of the Cassatt String Quartet she has appeared in the US, Canada and Mexico as well as in Europe and Asia. Major venues have included Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Bastille Opera House.

As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with Walter Trampler, Martin Lovett, Marc Johnson, Kazuhide Isomura, Masuko Ushioda and Lawrence Lesser.

Ms. Otani has held fellowships at the Banff Festival, the Tanglewood Summer Festival and at Yale University as assistant to the Tokyo Quartet.

She has served as a panelist for the Juilliard Concerto Competion as well as the Barlow Prize for composition and Chamber Music Amerca's Residency Program.

She received the Bachelor of Music degree in both performance and education from the Toho Academy of Music in Japan, where she studied with Toshiya Eto. She then continued her training at the New England Conservatory, where her principal teachers were Masuko Ushioda and Louis Krasner.