Pianist Miki Sawada, whose performance made The Boston Globe’s Best Of Arts 2021 list “The classical concerts that made me fall in love with live music again,” is known as a fearless musician who is taking classical music where others are not. Through her signature project Gather Hear Tour, Miki is traveling the country state-by-state with a piano in a van to perform in community gathering spaces instead of concert halls. The mission is to connect with Americans across socioeconomic and political boundaries in this deeply divided country through music. Miki has given more than 70 free concerts in Alaska, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Utah, and Louisiana, and has directed films about her tours which have screened at film festivals. When not trucking around with her own piano, Miki enjoys a career of solo and chamber music, with a special affinity for contemporary music. Miki has been featured at venues and occasions such as: Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Helsinki Music Centre, The Arctic Philharmonic (Norway), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater (NYC),

Roulette (Brooklyn), MATA Festival (NYC), Toronto Summer Music Festival, and Music on Main (Vancouver). In 2022, she made her soloist debut with the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra. In the summers, she is a faculty member of Heifetz Institute in Virginia.

Miki holds degrees from Yale School of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Northwestern University. She is an ultramarathon runner and finished her first 100-mile race this summer in the Oregon Cascades.