About
Born in Himeji, Japan. Vocal studies in Osaka and Kyoto as well as at the University of the Arts in Berlin.
Debut at the Festival in Aix-en-Provence as Hermia (A Midsummer Night's Dream). 2002/2003 - 2005/2006 Commitment to the Staatsoper Hannover, 2006/2007 - 2017/2018 in the ensemble of the Staatsoper Stuttgart.
In 2016 she was appointed Kammersängerin.
Here she sang u.a. Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Morgana (Alcina), Despina (Cosi fan tutte), Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), Musetta (La Boheme) Adele (The Bat), the Child (Czernowin's Chamber Opera Pnima), Rosina (Il Barbier di Siviglia), Ilia (Idomeneo), Celia (Lucio Silla), Amor (Orphée et Euridice), Frasquita (Carmen), Clarine in Platée and a flower girl and the first squire in "Parsifal". She has performed at the Komische Oper Berlin, the Leipzig Opera, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Aalto-Theater Essen, the Staatstheater Karlsruhe and at the Nissaytheater Tokyo.
She was soloist of the time opera production GOT LOST with music by Helmut Lachenmann at the Staatsoper Stuttgart and guested with this production, among others, at the Theater Bern.
Concerts with the piece GOT LOST she sang u.a. at the Salzburg Biennale, at the Mito Concert Hall, at the Oper Frankfurt, at the NDR Hamburg and SWR Freiburg, in the UdK Berlin with Yukiko Sugawra, Spoleto Festival (Renate Rohlfing at the piano), at the Estland Music Festival AFEKT (Talvi Hunt at the piano) and at the BIWAKO Festival in Japan (Tadashi Suenaga at the piano).
Yuko Kakuta also sang works by Schönberg, Webern, Nono and Lachenmann with Yukiko Sugawara at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna.
With the NHK Tokyo Radio Orchestra under Andrew Litton, Yuko Kakuta sang the soprano solo in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Ryusuke Numajiri with the Osaka Symphony Orchestra Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in The Symphony Hall Osaka and Norichika Iimori with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra the role of Sophie in the piece "White Rose" by Udo Zimmermann in the Suntoryhall Tokyo.
Songs by Toshio Hosokawasang her first in Santiago de Compostella (world premiere) and in the Concertgebouw Brugge.
Since 2018/2019 she is a freelance singer. The Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute) sings her at the Aalto Theater in Essen, during a tour of the Nissay Theater, in the iichikohalle in Ooita, the bivouac hall in Ootsu, in the Nankibunkakaikan in Nankitanabe and the Yahatabunkahalle in Kyoto. Got Lost (Helmut Lachenmann) sang at the festival AFEKT in Estonia, in Bremen and Berlin as well as in a recital with Yukiko Sugawara (piano) in the Aoyamahalle in Kyoto and now at the Lucerne Festival.
In 2019/2020 she sings the soprano solo of "The Girl with the Sulfur Woods" at the Zurich Opera, Queen of the Night at the Theater Winterthur (production by the Theater Heidelberg), Got lost at the Musikfest Berlin with the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and in a concert with Yukiko Sugawara at the "November Music Festival" in Hertogenbosch Holland and at "Wien Moderne".
Under Norichika Iimori and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, she sings the soprano solo in W.Rihm's "Eine Strasse, Lucile" for soprano and orchestra in the Suntoryhall Tokyo.