HARUKA SAKIYAMA

Posted on March 31, 2021

Camerata PYP will be premiering Haruka’s new piece Garden March on Saturday, April 24, 2021, at 7:00 PM PT on PYP’s YouTube channel.

Haruka Sakiyama is an eighth-grader at Athey Creek Middle School. She has been composing for fun for a couple of years, and has won in the 2020 OMEA Composition Competition, and was the Co-Champion of the 2021 OMEA Composition Competition. Haruka wrote her first piece in 2017, which was played by PYP’s Young Strings Ensemble several times, and again at an Oregon Symphony Children’s Concert in 2018.

In addition, she has been playing the violin for 10 years and currently studies with Clarisse Atcherson. Haruka has been a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic for seven years and was the assistant principal of the Young Strings Ensemble for the 2016-17 seasons. She also started playing the French horn in sixth grade and takes lessons from Larry Johnson, and plays the trumpet in her school jazz band. She has played the Koto, a traditional Japanese instrument, for four years and is currently a member of the Oregon Koto Kai.

Aside from music, Haruka enjoys baking and ski racing, and races as part of the Meadows Race Team winning 7th place at slalom skiing in 2020.