In 1984 Yumiko Sakuma graduated from the Paris Conservotory of Music, achieving the premieLre prix.
In 1983 she won the first prize and as well as the Josef Rampal prize at the Jean-Pierre Rampal Flute Competition organized by Paris city.
She won the gold medal of the Bordeaux International Music Festival in 1984, and won the second prize of the first Kobe International Flute Competition.
Since then, she has performed all over Japan with principal orchestras such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Especially in the field of chamber music, she has been highly motivated to develop the further possibility of the flute music, and she has always been in the spotlight as one of the top flutists in Japan.
Sakuma had been a pupil of Akiyasu Miyamoto, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Alain Marion,Raymond Guiod, and Christian Larde.
She is also an winner of the Muramatsu Award in 1989 and Mobil Music Exhortative Award in 1992.
