"Niekawa and DuWors create an art that goes beyond mere interpretation. The personality of the two musicians expands out with a creative attitude towards the world"
Sonograma Magazine
About duo526
duo526 was founded in 2011 by violinist Kerry DuWors and pianist Futaba Niekawa at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY). Their mentors include Charles Castleman, Jean Barr, Henk Guittart, Roger Tapping, Lafayette String Quartet, Hardy Rittner, and Mark Steinberg. duo526 has performed across Canada, the U.S., Japan and has had artist residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Avaloch Farm Music Institute.
In 2016, duo526 launched their “Mozart in Public Spaces” project: video recordings for social media of the complete Mozart sonatas in conjunction with the “Play Me I’m Yours” street pianos installations all over the world. They have recently given performances at the"Experience Villa-Lobos" Festival at Virginia Commonwealth University, Oklahoma University, Indiana University, Brandon University, the Canadian Music Centre, the Regina Chamber Music Festival, the Dream Big Collaborative Conference, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. duo526 is passionate about live performances in intimate venues and rural communities, and in 2025 toured a network of house concerts across British Columbia through "Living Room Live".
duo526 is dedicated to creative thought and the art of listening through the study and performance of a vast repertoire across an array of styles. Their joy of collaboration results from risk-taking, inspiration and spontaneous reactions. Their name was inspired by Mozart’s last Sonata for Violin and Piano K. 526, the first work presented to them for their equal virtuosic flair and refined musicianship. duo526’s 2014 debut album, Ballade, exemplifies this spirit through sonatas by Janáček, Enescu and Grieg. Their album DUO FANTASY featuring works by Villa-Lobos, Bax and Bolcom was released in 2019.
"The sheer musicianship, combined with flawless technique and imaginative programming, never fails to impress me" Classical Music Daily - Geoff Pearce
PIANO
Futaba Niekawa
Classical pianist Futaba Niekawa seeks true expression in music through her artistry as a versatile pianist, chamber musician, and mentor. Her performance has taken her throughout the United States, Canada, England, Spain, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. To date, she has released five recordings encompassing solo, four-hands, duo, and chamber music from classical to newly composed works.
Praised as “a beautifully balanced duo” by Gramophone Magazine, duo526 is a shared passion for Niekawa and violinist Kerry DuWors, since 2011. The duo reaches further than performing onstage, extending to their Sonata Seminar where they mentor and nurture the love of collaboration in the next generation, as well as their scholarly research and innovative projects on esoteric duo works.
Her love of collaboration led her to performances with Atar Arad, James Campbell, Charles Castleman, Mark Kaplan, and members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among others, and at international venues such as at the Regina Chamber Music Festival, the Festival of the Sound, and the Busan Maru International Music Festival. She has served on faculty as a collaborative pianist at the Banff Centre, New England Conservatory, Boston Ballet School, Meadowmount School of Music, Indiana University’s Summer String Academy, and the Perlman Music Program. An advocate of sharing live classical music beyond concert halls, Niekawa has performed many series of house concerts in various areas across North America. She was a founding member of Chamberfest Brown County in Nashville, Indiana, a community music outreach initiative for the local area.
A native of Japan, Niekawa studied with Takako Tsumura, Sumiko Mikimoto, and Keiko Takeuchi while she studied at Toho Gakuen School of Music. Niekawa holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (B.M. and D.M.A) and New England Conservatory (M.M), where she studied with Natalya Antonova, Jean Barr, William Porter, Thomas Schumacher, and Patricia Zander.
Her passion for pedagogy and mentoring is shown through her appearances as a guest teacher and performer at universities across North America. From 2015-2025, she taught and served as a Lecturer in Chamber and Collaborative Music at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Her students have pursued further studies at the Julliard School, New England Conservatory, the University of South California, the University of Colorado-Boulder and more. Since fall 2025, she has been appointed as an Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of Maryland in College Park.
VIOLIN
Kerry DuWors
With “exceptional intonation and a tangible empathy” (Gramophone Magazine), Canadian violinist Kerry DuWors is an acclaimed soloist and chamber musician. Described as having a “commanding combination of strength, sweetness and brightness” (WholeNote Magazine), she has performed across Canada, the United States, Japan, Central Asia, Europe, Mexico, and New Zealand. She recently toured Portugal, Armenia and Georgia with Juno-award-winning jazz pianist and composer David Braid. DuWors has won prestigious awards including Grand Prize at the 26th Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition, Felix Galimir Award for Chamber Music Excellence, the Eaton Scholarship, two Canada Council for the Arts Career Development Grants and an Explore and Create Grant. She is a four-time laureate of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Musical Instrument Bank.
Committed to pedagogy, mentorship, and collaboration, DuWors has been Associate Professor at Brandon University since 2003. She is in demand as an adjudicator and competition juror across Canada and is regularly invited as a guest teacher to give masterclasses internationally.
Recent projects include guest artist residencies at Indiana University and Sonata Seminar at Brandon University with duo526 piano partner Futaba Niekawa, Turkish-Classical Music project “Continuum” for Winnipeg’s Virtuosi Concert Series, Prairie Debut violin-piano recitals in Alberta and Saskatchewan with Katherine Dowling, Manitoba première of Luis Ramirez’s Immigration Suite, tours in The Netherlands, Ireland and Brazil, classical-electronic collaborations with violist Ryan Davis/Radia for GroundSwell, performances at the Dream Big Collaborative Conference and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the launch of the “Vietnamese Roots” audio-visual research and performance project featuring music by Vietnamese composers Nguyen Văn Quy and Tôn-Thât Tiêt.