Born in Japan and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Yuki Nagase is a New York City-based double bassist. Hailed as a “bold performer with huge facility” with “an enthusiastic personality, both in her speaking and playing, [that] will make her an advocate for the music she plays”, Yuki has a passion for joyful and community-strengthening performance, such as a recent project in collaboration with the visual artist Jam Yoo to combine Luciano Berio’s avant-garde work “Sequenza XIVb” for solo bass with improvised shadow puppetry and live drawing by the audience. Yuki has performed with orchestras such as the New World Symphony, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic, Symphony San Jose, Santa Cruz Symphony, and Fresno Philharmonic, and has appeared at venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Davies Symphony Hall, Slovak Radio Hall, and Smetana Hall. She has also performed with renowned musicians including Augustin Hadelich, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Meredith Monk, and Tai Murray, and has performed in recital halls in California, Connecticut, and Maine as a soloist and chamber musician. Yuki’s performance practice is greatly influenced by her dual career as a professional museum educator, holding positions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the International Center of Photography, and the Yale University Art Gallery.
Yuki graduated with a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, where she was principal of the Yale Philharmonia and New Music New Haven Contemporary Ensemble and, in addition to studying music, spent two years as a Wurtele Gallery Teacher at the Yale University Art Gallery. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific where she graduated summa cum laude, was principal of the University of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, was chosen to be a performer on the annual Honors Recital, and received the Woman of Distinction Undergraduate Award for spearheading and curating an International Women’s Day Recital. Yuki is proud to have been taught and mentored by Don Palma, Jessica Sack, Sebastian Ruth, Steve Tramontozzi, Thomas Derthick, and Andy Butler.