Nobue Matsuoka, Percussionist

Nobue Matsuoka began studying marimba at the age of ten with her aunt, Kayoko Kito in Nagoya, Japan. She came to the United States in 1989 and studied percussion at Loyola University in New Orleans with Jim Atwood of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. She won the Aspen Music Festival Percussion Competition in 1994, became the national winner of the 1995 Music Teacher National Association Young Artist Competition in Percussion and graduated from Loyola with honors.  

In 1998, she received a master’s degree in percussion performance from Southern Methodist University where she studied with Douglas Howard of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

As an active orchestral percussionist, Nobue's professional carrier includes performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Orleans Opera, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan. She was a semi-finalist for the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony and a finalist for the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2003, the Gambit Weekly of New Orleans, honored her performance "Sticks and Strings II" with the Tribute to the Classical Arts Award for Best Chamber Performance.

Ms. Matsuoka has worked for Google, Inc. as a Japanese Quality Rater, a Reference/Technical Services Librarian at Notre Dame Seminary and a Public Services Assistant/ILL specialist at Loyola University in New Orleans. Nobue recently moved from New Orleans, LA to become the Music/Performing Arts librarian at American University in Washington, DC.