Masaru Sakuma was born in La Paz, Bolivia, to a Japanese father and a Bolivian mother. He is currently a teaching artist and freelance pianist based in Phoenix, Arizona. Dedicated to promoting Latin American and Bolivian classical music, Masaru completed a landmark doctoral thesis on Bolivian composer Jaime Mendoza-Nava (1925–2005), exploring the development of Bolivian musical nationalism. Together with soprano Allison Stanford, he has presented the program Bolivian Voices to American audiences, and as part of the Dúo Boliviano Arawi, he released his first album, País de Sombra, in 2024. His second album, Jaime Mendoza-Nava: Piano Works, followed in 2025.
Masaru has performed at music festivals in Bolivia, Peru, and the United States, and has been invited as a guest artist to the Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany and the IES Abroad Summer Music Program in Vienna, Austria. He has won several piano competitions in Bolivia, in addition to receiving First Honorable Mention at the Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition in Chile (2003) and First Prize at the University of Central Arkansas Piano Competition (2010).
He earned his diploma in piano from the Bolivian National Conservatory in La Paz, where he studied under Russian pianist Irina Efanova. After graduation, he was awarded a scholarship to the University of Central Arkansas, where he completed his master’s degree and graduate certificate in Piano Performance under Dr. Neil Rutman. He later pursued his doctoral degree in Collaborative Piano at Arizona State University, studying with Prof. Russell Ryan.