Name: Masako Ohta
Nationality: Japanese
Occupation: Pianist, performance artist
Current release: Matthias Lindermayr and Masako Ohta's Nozomi is out February 14th 2025 via Squama.

[Read our Matthias Lindermayr interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Masako Ohta and would like to know more about her work, visit her official homepage.  

For a deeper dive, read our earlier Matthias Lindermayr and Masako Ohta interview.



What were some of your earliest collaborations? How do you look back on them with hindsight?

I remember that was with my younger brother, he played violin, me on the piano. We played Dvořák “Humoresque” together.

That is a memory that makes me happy and almost cry.

There are many potential models for collaboration, from live performances and jamming/producing in the same room together up to file sharing. Which of these do you prefer – and why?  

I love both of them, cannot compare them actually.

How did this particular collaboration come about?

We met at the music award ceremony of the city Munich, Germany in 2019 for the first time.

Each of us got the music award there.

What did you know about each other before working together? Describe your creative partner in a few words, please.

We didn´t know each other before.

Matthias is flexible and well balanced, a very comfortable person, and of course a wonderful musician.

What do you generally look for in a collaborator and what made you want to collaborate with each other specifically?

Being honest to each other.

Tell me a bit about your current instruments and tools, please. In which way do they support creative exchange and collaborations with others?  

The piano is somehow an allrounder and very personal at the same time …

I adore this instrument.

Before you started making music together, did you in any form exchange concrete ideas, goals, or strategies? Generally speaking, what are your preferences when it comes to planning vs spontaneity in a collaboration?

I would say, spontaneity.

Describe the process of working on your latest release, please. What was different from your expectations and what did the other add to the music?

I feel that we complement each other well. I've enjoyed and still enjoy that process very much.

What tend to be the best collaborations in your opinion – those with artists you have a lot in common with or those where you have more differences? What happens when another musician take you outside of your comfort zone?  

I think we can be very different. That difference is amazing, when there are respect and sensibility for each other.

Decisions between creatives often work without words. How did this process work in this case?

I think it helps us sometimes to speak out what we feel and think.

But mainly, the music leads us.

What are your thoughts on the need for compromise vs standing by one's convictions? How did you resolve potential disagreements in this collaboration?

Just talk and play again.

Was/Is this collaboration fun – does it need to be?

This collaboration is really a fun one - for me anyway.

Do you find that thanks to this collaboration, you changed certain parts of your process or your outlook on certain creative aspects?

It makes me happy and reflective. I am thankful for that.

Collaborating with one's heroes can be a thrill or a cause for panic. Do you have any practical experience with this and what was it like?

Not yet … and unfortunately, it's impossible now. I wanted to play with Prince.