Yoko Kono

Born in Paris to a family of Japanese origin, Yoko Kono began playing the piano at the age of four. In 1940, she moved to Tokyo, where she studied under Kazuko Yasukawa. She continued her studies at the Paris Conservatory with Lucette Descaves and Joseph Benvenuti. She earned her piano diploma in 1951, winning the Premier Prix, and her chamber music diploma in 1952, receiving the Première Médaille. She then continued her studies in Germany at the Hochschule in Detmold with Hans Richter-Haase. In 1954, she won first prize at the "GB Viotti" International Competition in Vercelli, the first Asian musician to receive such a significant recognition in Europe.

She performed with the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala and the Teatro La Fenice. The authoritative music critic Andrea Della Corte praised her delicate touch and the quality of her phrasing. During the same years, she performed throughout Europe, including with prestigious ensembles such as the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Birmingham Symphony, SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Radio Orchestra, and the Athens Orchestra. She appeared repeatedly on television programs in Italy and Great Britain.

In 1965, she met Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Tokyo, who invited her to attend his master classes at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena (1965 and 1966), in Lugano (1969), and, privately, in Rabbi (from 1966 to 1970). During that period, she also became Michelangeli's assistant. In 1970, she returned to Japan and dedicated herself to critically acclaimed recordings for the Victor (compositions by Bach, Clementi, Mendelssohn, and Ravel) and Fontec (Debussy) labels, presenting a repertoire carefully explored with the legendary Italian pianist. In 1983, with Henriette Puig-Roget, he recorded an album dedicated to the 12 waltzes from Reynaldo Hahn's Le ruban dénoué cycle . In 2010, with Cord Garben and Bernd Goetzke, he participated in a program on Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli for the German NDR.

Source of the above (edited)

In an article of New York style magazine Japan, Yoko Kono said:

I lived as a resident apprentice alongside two other Japanese women in a house tucked away in the Dolomites. Maestro Michelangeli prepared all the meals himself. It was healthy cooking—no butter or anything like that—but the way he used salt and herbs, and his control of the heat, were exquisite; the food was astonishingly delicious. Getting him to teach us required a certain knack. If you asked for a lesson at a specific time the next day and just waited, he’d likely lose interest and never come out of his room. So, we’d catch him when he was coming back from gardening and say, 'Please teach me this part,' and he’d say, 'Let's see,' and take a look.

He was, in truth, a man who practiced constantly. He would break down a melody, refine it note by note, put it back together, and repeat the sequence over and over—*plonk, plonk, plonk*. We used to listen to this while doing chores like the laundry. It was an incredible learning experience. Occasionally, there were moments that felt like a special treat. He would have me sit beside the piano and play pieces he didn't usually perform. Yet, despite what a rare opportunity it was, I once blurted out, 'I'm hungry—please hurry up and make dinner.' He just laughed in disbelief, saying, 'No one ever says a thing like that.'