Noriko Yasuda began her career in Osaka Japan as an accompanist with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra and Osaka College of Music Opera House. In that capacity she worked with Seiji Ozawa, Toru Takemitsu, Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Alfred Kraus, among others.
Since she moved to the U.S. in 1993, she has worked with Grant Llewellyn, Harry Christophers, John Nelson, Stephen Lord, John Finney, Jeffrey Rink, F. John Adams, Martin Pearlman, and Louis Burkot. She has been invited as a guest accompanist for master classes with Jose Van Dam, Mignon Dunn, Jerry Hadley, Shirley Verret, Joseph Colaneri, Betty Buckley, Sharon Daniels, Donna Roll, and Louise Toppin.
An active vocal coach and accompanist in the Boston area, she has worked with Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Baroque, Handel and Haydn Society, Chorus Pro Musica, New England String Ensemble, and La Donna Musicale. Her credits as opera continuo are “Le Nozze di Figaro”, “Don Giovanni”, “Cosi Fan Tutte”, “L’Elisir D’Amore”, “Il Barbiere di Siviglia”, “La Cenerentola” , “Orontea”,“Alcina”, “Xerxes”, and “Dido and Aeneas”.
Currently, she is the principal coach at Longy Opera Workshop and Opera North and staff accompanist/coach at the Boston University Opera Program. In 2009 she received the George Seaman Excellence in Teaching Awards from Longy School of Music of Bard College. She and her husband baritone Robert Honeysucker regularly travel to Japan to give master classes. They had been invited by Osaka College of Music, Kobe Women’s College, Doshisha Women’s College, and Osaka University of Fine Arts where she is on the visiting faculty.
Teaching Philosophy
“Operatic singing is probably the most direct way to express human emotions, yet is one of the most complicated and refined forms in classical music. To engage in singing, alone and with other voices, projecting over a full orchestra, in costume and acting in a believable, yet stylized manner, usually in a language in which you have little or no fluency, requires an enormous amount of focus and concentration. My philosophy is to simplify the work and help the singer focus on what is significant at any given moment and anticipate accordingly.”