Mikio (Miki) Sasaki, trumpet player and educator, is an Assistant Professor of Trumpet at the University of Oregon. Prior to his current appointment, Sasaki lived in Austin, Texas, where he served as Instructor of Trumpet at Texas Lutheran University and was a frequent performer in the Central Texas area. Previously, Sasaki was a member of the venerable Saint Louis Brass, and was based in New York City as a freelance musician and Adjunct Lecturer at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, where he was a trumpet instructor and director of the brass ensemble.
Raised in a family of classical, jazz, and bluegrass musicians, Sasaki is a flexible performer with the ability to switch seamlessly between classical, jazz, and other styles of music. He has enjoyed international and national performances with a wide variety of groups and festivals, including Atlantic Brass Quintet, Saint Louis Brass, yMusic, Chamber Music Northwest, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Austin Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Richmond Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Broadway’s Matilda, Boss Street Brass Band, and as a soloist with the Austin Symphony.
As a teaching artist, Sasaki has guided students from the elementary through the collegiate level in their journeys to musical fulfillment. He has worked with numerous teaching artist programs, including Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program, the Little Orchestra Society, Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts, and Juilliard Precollege. His appointments at University of Oregon, Texas Lutheran University, and Brooklyn College allowed him the opportunity to further his educational mission at the collegiate level, cultivating musicality and creativity in future generations of musicians and educators.
Sasaki earned his previous degrees at The University of Texas at Austin (DMA ’22), Yale School of Music (MM ’15), and The Juilliard School (BM ’13), studying with teachers Billy Hunter, Allan Dean, Mark Gould, Raymond Mase, and Ray Sasaki.