Dr. Jason Kuo

Pianist Jason S. Kuo studied with Martha Wasley at the University of California at Berkeley and was later coached by Janet Guggenheim, whose worldwide concert credits included over thirty years of collaboration with the celebrated violinist Itzhak Perlman.
Dr. Kuo has performed with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra (2012-2018), the Octava Chamber Orchestra (2013-2018), and Pacifica Chamber Orchestra (2018). He also curated a popular chamber music series at the Seattle Downtown Library (2015-2018). He has been teaching piano privately since 1991, and has studios in Seattle, Bothell, and Issaquah. He is a member of the Seattle Music Teachers Association and is currently serving as the Music Artistry Program Chair of Washington State Music Teachers Association.
Recent performances with clarinetist Maryanne Lacaille include a Youtube video of Spanish Folk Variations for E-flat clarinet and piano (c. 2013) by Francisco Jose Martinez Gallego (2021 ClarinetFest, International Clarinet Association), and a performance of Paquito D’Rivera’s The Cape Cod Files (c. 2009) at the University of Tennessee (2019 ClarinetFest).
Past orchestral appearances included Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19 (Octava Chamber Orchestra), Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Pacifica Chamber Orchestra), Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (Octava Chamber Orchestra), Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (NW Symphony), Grofé ’s Grand Canyon Suite (NW Symphony), Copland’s El Salón México and Appalachian Spring (NW Symphony), and Respighi’s Pines of Rome (NW Symphony). He also played in Auburn High School’s pit orchestra for seven seasons in musical productions including Hairspray, Damn Yankees, Footloose, and Once Upon a Mattress.
As a side note, Dr. Kuo is also a former research faculty at the University of Washington’s Department of Chemistry. He is an author of more than twenty scientific journal articles and an inventor with several patents in biochemical analysis and cancer research.