Eri Isomura

Eri Isomura is a freelance performer and instructor of piano, percussion, and marimba, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She frequently performs in orchestras, recitals, choirs, musicals, and recording projects around the Twin Cities. In 2023 she was the artist of percussion solo album "Twelve Months in Minnesota" composed by Asuka Kakitani, and in 2021 she released the album "Musical Moments for Cello and Marimba" with her father Sachiya Isomura, a former cellist in the Minnesota Orchestra. Eri is a founding member of 10th Wave Chamber Music Collective, a Twin Cities-based ensemble featuring new innovative classical chamber music. She has recently performed in a variety of musical styles with the Minnesota Opera, Champagne Confetti, Zeitgeist, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, and others. She has commissioned and/or premiered works for marimba and vibraphone by composers such as Asako Hirabayashi, Michael Maiorana, AJ Isaacson-Zvidwa, Ian A Cook, Elwyn A Fraser Jr., Jonathan Posthuma, and others.

As an educator, Eri was on the percussion faculty and the director of the Improvisation Ensemble at St. Olaf College. She currently is the Percussion Seminar Instructor at Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, is a percussion class teacher at Yinghua Academy and serves as the president of the Percussive Arts Society Minnesota Chapter. She has been a clinician for the Concordia College Percussion Day, Minnesota Percussion Association Percussion Day, MacPhail Center for Arts Percussion Showcase, and several Minnesota high schools. As a piano instructor she is a member of the Minnesota Music Teachers Association as well as the Minneapolis Music Teachers Forum. She has been a guest panelist for the Minnesota Orchestra Pre-Concert Talk and St. Olaf Arts Entrepreneurship, as well as a guest on several music podcasts.​

Eri's diverse musical background began with classical piano with Jean Krinke and percussion with Robert Adney. She continued to St. Olaf College where she continued her percussion and marimba studies with David Hagedorn, Phil Hey and Kent McWilliams, and received her Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance with Distinction. She completed her Masters in Percussion Performance at The Boston Conservatory under the tutelage of Keith Aleo, Doug Perkins, Samuel Z Solomon, and Nancy Zeltsman. 

Eri is endorsed by Koide Cymbals and Innovative Percussion.

See more at eriisomura.com or 10thwave.org.