Ayane Kozasa

Praised for her “magnetic, wide-ranging tone” and “rock solid technique” (Philadel­­phia Inquirer), violist Ayane Kozasa is a chamber musician, collaborator, and educa­tor. Winner of the 2011 Primrose Interna­tional Viola Competition, she is the violist of Kronos Quartet as of 2024; she succeeds Hank Dutt, the ensemble’s violist of 45 years.

Kozasa is a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet, which was the 2018 quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the grand prize winner of both the Osaka International String Quartet Com­petition and the MPrize Chamber Arts Competition. The Aizuri Quartet’s debut album, Blueprinting (New Amsterdam), was nominated for a Grammy Award and named one of NPR’s top 10 classical albums of 2018.

In 2022, Kozasa joined the viola faculty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She previously taught at Adelphi University in Long Island and has been a guest professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Kozasa is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Kronberg Academy, and Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied viola with Misha Amory, Roberto Díaz, Nobuko Imai, and Kirsten Docter. www.ayanekozasa.com.