Hyo-shin Na's "A Little Winter Flower" for mixed choir, piano, koto and bass is the highlight of this concert.

Three esteemed masters of koto—Shoko Hikage, Tomohiro Tanaka, and Kayo Toki—play the music of composer Hyo-shin Na.
 
Shoko Hikage began studying koto at age three with Chizuga Kimura in Akita Prefecture, Japan, received special training from Seiga Adachi, and in 1988 graduated from Takasaki College with a major in koto music. She earned a master’s at Sawai Koto Institute under Tadao and Kazue Sawai. After teaching koto at the Hawaiian branch of the Sawai Koto Institute and at the University of Hawaii, she moved to San Francisco in 1997 to continue playing and teaching. She premiered Hyo-shin Na's “Crazy Horse" with the National Orchestra of Traditional Instruments in Seoul, Korea in 2011. In the Bay Area, she also premiered Hyo-shin Na’s “Night Procession of the Hundred Demons,” "Koto Music," and "Koto Ninano." She recently released her second album of Na's music.
 
Tomohiro Tanaka also started playing koto at age three. His mother, a koto grandmaster, was his first teacher. He earned a B.A. from Toyo University in Tokyo and a master’s from the Seiha Koto School. He has performed at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, and at the Sapporo Education & Culture Hall. Currently, he is in the San Francisco duo Fujin Raijin.
 
Kayo Toki started playing koto at age three under Masashino Aihara, and at 12 began studying with grandmaster Masachizu Kawasaki. In 1993, she became a junior acting master of Seiha Hogakukai and took the stage name Masakazu Toriya. In 2002, she graduated from the NHK Academy of Japanese Traditional Music and became an acting master of Seiha Hogakukai. After teaching koto and shamisen in Tokyo, she moved in 2006 to San Jose, where she plays in Fujin Raijin and teaches koto as a way to promote the understanding and appreciation of Japanese traditional music.
 
Composer Hyo-shin Na studied piano and composition in her native Korea, moved to New York in 1983 to do graduate work at the Manhattan School of Music, and received her doctorate from the University of Colorado. She has composed for western instruments, for traditional Korean instruments, and for a combination of eastern and western instruments. Her innovative compositions are known for their refusal to compromise the integrity of differing sounds and ideas; she prefers to let them interact, coexist, and conflict in the music.