Marika Yasuda is a versatile collaborator with a rising concert and opera career in the United States. She recently completed the Adler Fellowship Program at San Francisco Opera as a pianist/vocal coach, where she joined the music staff on productions of Donizetti’s L'Elisir d'Amore, Gabriela Frank's El último sueño de Frida y Diego, Verdi's La Traviata, Bright Sheng's Dream of the Red Chamber, and Bohème Out of the Box. This season, she returns to San Francisco Opera for Poul Ruder’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and is also on music staff at Palm Beach Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. 
 

As a collaborative pianist, Marika maintains an active schedule of recitals and orchestral concerts, appearing at Carnegie Hall, Seiji Ozawa Hall, War Memorial Opera House, Herbst Theatre, Green Music Center, Bennett Gordon Hall, and the Kennedy Center. Recent engagements include a recital with soprano, Magdalena Kuzma at Green Music Center, onstage piano appearances in the SFO production of L’Elisir d’Amore, performances of La Bohème throughout the Bay area as part of Bohème Out of the Box, and a song recital in the 2023 Schwabacher Recital Series curated by Nicholas Phan. Marika has collaborated with ensembles including San Francisco Opera Orchestra, eighth blackbird and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and has worked with prominent opera companies and institutions such as Houston Grand Opera and Yale University in the recording of several digital concert series and virtual projects during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic. Past engagements also include the world premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s In America (2018) for voices and orchestra, an all-cello program at Concerts at Bradley Hills, recitals at Middlebury Song Fest in Vermont, concerts with the Boulanger Initiative in Washington, D.C., and various concerts for San Francisco Opera.
 

As a soloist, Marika has received top prizes in the Hellam Young Artists’ Competition, Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, Julia Crane International Piano Competition, and Music Teachers National Association competitions. She performed Samuel Barber’s piano concerto as a winner of the 2015 Oberlin Conservatory Concerto Competition, and has worked with artists such as Leon Fleisher, Peter Serkin, Robert McDonald, and Meng-Chieh Liu.
 

Marika earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Collaborative Piano at Indiana University under the guidance of Kevin Murphy and Anne Epperson. During her graduate work, Marika served as coach accompanist for Indiana University Opera Theater in productions of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Bohéme, Gianni Schicchi, West Side Story, and Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. She continued her education with fellowships at numerous festivals, including the prestigious Merola Opera Program, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Tanglewood Music Center, SongFest at Colburn, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Gijon International Piano Festival.