Meet the Directors of Lyra

AKIKO SASAKI
Artistic Director, Founder

Vibrant pianist Akiko Sasaki’s dynamic performances and detailed instruction have earned her a highly respected reputation as a concert pianist and music educator in the New York City area. Praised as, “impressively sensitive and interactive,” (City Arts New York), Sasaki has appeared throughout Europe and the United States as soloist and chamber artist and has collaborated with prominent artists from institutions around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Harlem Quartet, Marlboro, and the Grammy winning Pacifica Quartet. She is a former member of the Sasaki-Schoen-Rene Duo, Akiko Duo, and the Heaton Sasaki Duo.

Sasaki has appeared in New York City venues such as Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, WQXR’s Greene Space, Roulette, Tenri Cultural Institute, as well as in solo recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. She has won numerous awards including the Notes at Nine Thousand Emerging Artist Competition, Lamont Concerto Competition, and the Artist International Competition. Other distinguished accomplishments include winning the Allied Arts Music Award, the Bernstein Crossman Piano Award, the New York City Distinguished Artist Award presented by Mu Phi Epsilon, being selected as a participant for Frederic Chiu’s Deeper Piano Studies and winning the Bettylou Scandling Hubin Award for World Music.

Ms. Sasaki is also an active and notable music educator. She is a former faculty member of the Kauffman Center’s Lucy Moses School, New York City’s public school for musically gifted children. Currently, she serves as piano faculty at the State University of New York at New Paltz and maintains her own studio, Forte>Piano Studio in Beacon, New York.

Sasaki is the founder, artistic director, and serves as a faculty member with the Lyra Music Festival and the Lyra Music Young Artist Performance Program. She is also Co-Founder of Musical Explorers and Performing Pianists of New York. Sasaki received her bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. Her success in Colorado led her to study abroad as a scholarship student at the Guildhall School of Music in London. There she worked with one of England’s foremost pedagogues, Benjamin Kaplan. She continued her studies at the Manhattan School of Music, earning a master’s degree in Piano Performance. Sasaki’s former instructors include Alice Rybak, Jeffrey Cohen, Jose Mendez, Miyoko Lotto, and Julian Martin.

In addition to Ms. Sasaki’s career as a pianist and music educator, she also curates and presents high-caliber artists in concert series serving as the Artistic Director of the Lyra Music Festival and Music Director of the Howland Chamber Music Circle. 

RACHEL ODO
Executive Director

Rachel Odo joined Lyra Music as Executive Director in the fall of 2016 having served on the Executive Board in Fundraising and Public Relations and on-site at the Summer Music Festival and Workshop as Director of Communications, Health Supervisor and Counselor. As a former Lyra parent and staff member, she brings a personal perspective to her leadership of the program, having seen first-hand the kinds of musical and personal growth that develop through a Lyra Summer.

As a small business owner and consultant, she has experience starting, developing and maintaining a private music studio, managing programs, event planning, grant writing and fundraising. In addition to her private music teaching she served for many years on the faculty of the Brooklyn Youth Music Project Summer Workshop.

Her diverse experience and background merge three worlds: psychology, dance and music. As a music educator working with beginning pianists of all ages, she is adept at tapping each musician’s strengths and addressing their challenges in a nurturing and positive manner. A parent of two musicians on violin and cello/piano, she has both personal and professional experience working with children and adolescents developing healthy practice and performance habits, including the management of performance anxiety.

Ms. Odo grew up in Hawaii where she had the opportunity to study anklung, xylophone, and hula and to perform in a touring youth music and dance ensemble. She spent 10 years freelancing as a modern dancer after college in New York City and has studied piano performance/pedagogy with Faine Wright and violin with Anna Elashvili. She is a licensed clinical social worker and holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia University and a master’s degree in social work from New York University’s Silver School of Social Work.