Yoko Nagae Ceschina

Who is Yoko Nagae Ceschina?

Countess Yoko Nagae Ceschina is a Japanese-born mecenate living in Italy who in February 2008 was in the news for funding the New York Philharmonic's concert in Pyongyang.

Born in 1932 in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, she graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and went to Italy in 1960 to study harp as the very first publicly funded Japanese student abroad since World War II. In 1962 she met Count Renzo Ceschina, a millionaire businessman from Milan whom she married in 1977.

Her husband died few years later and she spent a decade fighting his relatives over his inheritance. His estate was reportedly worth nearly 190 million dollars. Having won, she devoted herself to promoting music.

She has sponsored countless musicians and concerts, among them Valeri Gergiev, conductor of the Mariinski Theatre in St-Petersburg, and purchased Maxim Vengerov's excellent violin, for which he greatly thanks her, expressing appreciation in all of his program notes.

About the controversies surrounding the concert in North Korea, she says: "I know nothing about politics, I don't care about the conflicts between North Korea, Japan, United States. I love music and music is a universal language. I am pleased I can make the concert possible, I hope it can contribute to peace".