Inoue was born in Kobe, Japan. She entered the composition department of Tokyo Gakugei University, and graduated in 1981. She matriculated from the graduate department of the same university, where she studied composition and electronic music. Her masters' thesis was The composition study of John Cage's early piano pieces. She was the last student under Shesshu Kai, the late composer who had a big impact on her and she also studied piano under Atsuko Okada, a professor at the Tokyo College of Music. She played new pieces by young composers of her same generation at the concerts when she was a Graduate School student, then appeared at the concerts of the Japan Society for Contemporary Music and the Japan Federation of Composers.
Career
In 1986, Inoue became Pianist for the Musica Practica Ensemble organized by composer Jo Kondo. In 1991, she started her annual concert, Satoko Plays Japan, in Tokyo. She played 64 pieces composed by 28 composers including Jo Kondo, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Yori-aki Matsudaira and others she commissioned until 10th concert in 2000. From 2001, she included pieces by foreign countries' composers. She played 82 pieces in the series of concerts from 2001 to 2012 except in 2004 when she was too ill to play. She has commissioned 18 pieces by 12 composers, including Jo Kondo, Yuji Ito, Takashi Fujii, Haruyuki Suzuki, Doina Rotaru and others. The special programs of these concerts were Jo Kondo' works, Mieko Shiomi's works and concert title in 2007, Morton Feldman's works and Jon Cage's works in his second period. In 2011, she had her two recitals " Satoko Plays Japan - the locus of 20 years - " entitled in which "collect commissioned works" and "Jo Kondo's works 1990-2011"as the 20th recital commemoration. Besides these concerts, she gives her recitals with themes at Kawai Music Shop Aoyama a few times a year. She gave solo recitals of works of Henry Cowell, Giacinto Scelsi, John Cage and others with very themes, had duet concerts with violinist Shiho Tejima and clarinetist Guido Arbonelli. In 1995–1999, Satoko organized her concerts with composer Yuji Ito at the Rene Kodaira, and played at that concerts total of 12 times. In 1999-2005, she gave recitals sponsored by the Japan Foundation In 2006, she had a solo recital with works by contemporary Japanese and American composers in New York City, and obtained high evaluation by "New York Concert Review /Winter2007". From 2008, organizing and performance at the concerts series entitled "music documents" at Mon-naka tenjoh Hall in Tokyo, 3 times per year. In 2010, she was awarded “Keizo Saji Prize” by The Suntory Foundation for Arts with “Satoko Inoue Piano Recital #19 Morton Feldman-Works for Piano”.
1992 — Darmstadt Summer Contemporary Music Seminar
1993 — 5th Akiyoshidai International Contemporary Music Seminar & Festival
1999 — Performances at the department Muenster of the conservatory of music Detmold in Germany and Lille the Third University in France under the Nomura Cultural Foundation.
2011 — Festival "l'Art pour l'Aar" in Switzerland)
In 2006 Solo recitals at the Turkish-Japanese Foundation Culture Center in Ankara under Turkey Embassy of Japan and Minar Sinan Guzel Sanatlar Universitesi Devlet Konservatuvari Oditorium in Istanbul. In 2011, the solo recital in Bern sponsored by Japanese Embassy in Switzerland, and performed at the musica aperta in Switzerland. Premiered the work of Akemi Naito + Kristine Marx at the Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Released solo performance CDs from HatHut,Switzerland and Edition Hundertmark, Germany.
「JAPAN PIANO 1996」（hatArt103）
「Jo Kondo Works for Piano」
「Luc Ferrari Piano&Percussion Works」,elected as the best 10 on the British musical journal "The Wire" in the year of 2011
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Satoko Inoue, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 8 works in 10 publications in 1 language and 20+ library holdings.
