After showing an interest in learning the piano in the 4th grade, Ms. Sakura was taught the first page of “Fur Elise” by her mother, which marked the beginning of Ms. Sakura’s piano career.
Sadly, Ms. Sakura’s mother was diagnosed with a mental illness and was hospitalized before she could finish teaching Ms. Sakura the rest of the piece; however Ms. Sakura’s passion for wanting to learn the piano was so strong, she taught herself the rest of Für Elise on her own. “It was a repeating process for my mother. She got better and worse everyday, which made her stop teaching from that point. However, I used it as a lesson to get better at playing the piano.”
From there, Ms. Sakura taught herself how to read notes and eventually continued her music education by taking piano lessons. Her passion for piano comes from how beautiful it sounds and the fact that she has always been good at it.
After moving to Tokyo for college, Ms. Sakura decided to make a career out of teaching the piano. This meant she needed to know more than Japanese to teach, which caused her to major in English just in case she ever moved out of Japan. Even without a piano in the small apartment in Tokyo, she knew that playing piano was her life.
After college, she moved to America, seeking a better opportunity and to see the outside world. She was able to attend SF State as a foreign student and picked up a summer job as a tour guide. She then met the love of her life while they were both working at the company. After getting married, Ms. Sakura permanently stayed in America and wanted to teach music. She (WENT BACK TO SCHOOL?)majored in music at SF State around the age of 30, which forced her to learn other instruments for orchestra and band.
After student teaching at Galileo, Ms. Sakura wanted to stay at Galileo because it is one of the few high schools that have a piano program & she loves to see the view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
After having taught at Galileo for 7 years now, Ms. Sakura not only teaches piano, but orchestra and band as well. She’s been able to direct many of the winter concerts and provide many musical performances by not just her but her students, in which she was positively influenced. Outside of school, she also teaches private lessons to 1-2 kids a week.
