Born in Tokyo in 1937; Keiko Abe is a marimba player, composer and teacher. She studied music education at Tokyo Gakugei University and began her career with appearances on Japanese radio. Her collaboration with Yamaha, which began at the end of the 1960s, gave rise to the concert marimba with a five-octave range; the YM-6000 model was completed in 1984 and built from 1985. From 1970 she taught at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo. She has written more than 80 works, among them “Michi” and “Frogs”, and has given more than 200 works their world premiere. In 1993 she was the first woman to be admitted to the Hall of Fame of the Percussive Arts Society. She is represented as a composer on the Cybele album Rolf Hildebrand: Marimba (1995).
Keiko Abe
Composer
