Tokisho Akiyoshi (1929- ) is a jazz pianist, composer/arranger, and bandleader. Born in Dairen, Manchuria, Akiyoshi was Berklee’s first Japanese student and one of its earliest female graduates (1959). Akiyoshi had been playing jazz clubs in Tokyo for several years, having formed her own bands and become the first Japanese jazz musician to record for an American label, when she moved from Japan to Boston to attend Berklee on a full scholarship. In addition to her studies in composition, Akiyoshi performed as the house pianist for George Wein’s Storyville club in Copley Square and recorded a total of four albums during her years in Boston. Inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999, her accolades include 14 Grammy nominations, the 2007 Jazz Master Fellowship, the 1986 New York City Liberty Award, and being the first woman to win the Best Arranger and Composer awards in DownBeat magazine’s Readers Poll. She also received an honorary degree from Berklee in 1998.