Wakana Hamada

Wakana Hamada was born in 1979 in Japan and she lives in the U.S. since 2014. She also lived in the U.S from 2006 to 2008 and completed language education classes at School of Education, Indiana University. She started to play the piano at the age of 10 and received private lessons for 8 years until started to go to college to study languages and cultures in East Asia. After moving to the U.S. in 2014, she started playing the piano again and received private lessons. She is also taking part in a series of masterclasses by Dr. Kirill Gliadkovsky at Saddleback College since 2016. Wakana won the first prize at JMAC Piano Competition in 2018 in Los Angeles. Appearances as a soloist with orchestra include performances with West Valley College Orchestra in 2017, 2019 and 2020 at California Concerto Festival. She performed Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 16: I. Allegro molto moderato (2017), Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54: III. Allegro vivace (2019), and Beethoven Piano Concerto in E-flat major, op. 73: III. Rondo: Allegro (2020). She worked as a technical translator in several positions such as Renesas System Design, Semiconductor Energy Laboratory