Accompanist

Akemi Kerber was born in Tokyo, Japan. After she graduated from The Musashino Music College, she became a music director and principal accompanist under contract with The Matsuyama Ballet for 15 years. Rudolf Nureyev joined this ballet company to perform with Yoko Morishita in Giselle, Don Quixote & Sleeping Beauty choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev for 5 years. Kerber accompanied for the ballet lesson video ( Vol. 1–3 ) & CD and for the ballet lesson programme on Japanese public TV-NHK (30 minutes once per week for 6 months) with Yoko Morishita for the live show. She composed all music for these videos, CDs, and TV except the ballet standards. She was an accompanist of The Japan International Ballet & Modern Dance Competition (the honorary president of this competition was H.I.H. Princess Takamodo).

Akemi has received excellent guidance and accompaniment methods for ballet & ballet dancers from the music directors of The Paris Opera Ballet, The Bolshoi Ballet and The Kirov Ballet. She was very fortunate to be able to participate directly with Mikhail Baryshnikov when he performed and gave his lessons. Kerber had great experiences meeting and accompanying famous ballet dancers & dance companies all over the world.  All famous ballet dancers and teachers that she accompanied gave her high trust and praise. She worked with American Ballet Theatre, ABT Studio Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Les Grand Ballet Canadien, St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre, The Perm State Academy Ballet Theatre, Jose Limon Dance Company, Ballet British Columbia, etc. at Kaatsbaan, Jacob’s pillow, Tanglewood, etc. for the workshop of The Youth American Grand Prix.

She has accompanied Martine Van Hamel, Kevin Mackenzie, John Meehan, Gelsy Kirkland, Fernando Bujones, Suzanne Farrell, Ekaterina Maximova, Vladimir Vasiliev and more. In addition, she has played for Seiji Ozawa's Chorus Group and sang many times on stage as a chorus member when he conducted. She accompanied a violinist who was the president of “Suzuki methodology.” She studied singing, ballet, modern, jazz, African, and hip hop dance too. It is her pleasure to serve on the staff of Vassar College. She is really enjoying living in such a beautiful area—Hudson Valley in New York .