Prof.Yuko NINOMIYA, vice president of PTNA received an award from MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) commending for her long term dedication to music education. On December 14th, the awarding ceremony was held in the assembly hall in the Ministry.

This prize is given to people who have been served more than 10 years as members of the board at associations incorporated in MEXT, and have remarkable dedication and influence in the social education. Among the previous winners, some PTNA board members were awarded; late Yasuko Fukuda(founder), Yasuko Nakayama, Susumu TABUCHI, Takashi TAKARAGI, Hideo ARASHINO, Reiko MATSUZAKI, and Emiko HARIMOTO.

Prof.Yuko Ninomiya was a recipient of the First Prize winner of the 29th NHK-Mainichi competition in Japan. She received the Fulbright Scholarship that enabled her to study at Juilliard School to study under Professor Beverage Webster. After graduation, she continued her study and research on piano playing with Raymond Hanson at Hartt College of Music, Connecticut and appeared many time for PBS Television Networks. As a teacher, she served as a lecturer of Piano Department of University of Connecticut at Storrs, CT. She was a member of Japan Trio with a cellist, T. Tsutsumi, Professor at Indiana University, and a violin soloist, K.Suzumi. The group made tour engagements in USA, Japan and Europe.

In 1975 she returned to Japan and resumed her career as performer and teacher. She gave recitals, playing with orchestras, such as NHK Symphony, etc. She performed a concerto with the Shin-Nippon Philharmony under the baton of Seiji Ozawa.

She has served as a Judge for many international competitions such as The Gina Bachauer International Competition(US), The International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians(Japan), The Cantu International Competition for Piano and Orchestra(Italy), Concours International de de Musique de Maroc, etc.

Currently, she has been a Lecturer at Toho School of Music and is serving as a Vice President and a Director of Piano Competition of PTNA. She has taught many young talented pianists like Shohei SEKIMOTO (4th prize winner of 15th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw) and Aimi KOBAYASHI, a 15 year-old-pianist who made CD debut from EMI classics this year and will appear in the Japan NYC Festival at the Carnegie Hall in April 2011.