Mio Nakamura, a native of Kyoto, Japan, is a graduate of Kyoto Municipal Senior High School of Music in Japan; her former teachers include Iyuko Hishida, Junko Ishida, Keiko Takeuchi, and Michiko Takeuchi. As a scholarship student of Ludmila Lazar the at Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University, she received a Performance Diploma, as well as B.M. and M.M. degrees in piano performance with honors.

Ms. Nakamura has participated in the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine as a scholarship recipient and has studied with Martin Canin from the Juilliard School. She has played in the master classes of Menahem Pressler, Mary Sauer, Martin Katz, Evenly Brancart, and Hershey Felder.

She has established herself as a much-in-demand soloist, collaborative artist, and chamber musician in the Chicago area and abroad. She has been praised for her "exceptional talent" (Jay Friedman, Chicago Symphony Orchestra), "elegant performances" (David Holloway, Director of Apprentice Singers program, Santa Fe opera), and "passion and excitement", (Michael Best, former principal Artist, the Metropolitan opera).

Ms. Nakamura made her debut with the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest in 2008, performing Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 and was invited again to perform the Liszt Totentanz in 2010. She is a frequent guest artist at the Consulate General of Japan at Chicago and has recently appeared at their special concert, Chopin Over the Pacific. Other solo appearances include a performance with the Evanston Symphony orchestra, a recital at the Piano Forte Salon Series on 98.7 WFMT, as well as regular engagements with the Chicago Japanese American Association. As a collaborative artist, she has performed with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, Japan.

Ms. Nakamura had her first appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing as second keyboardist at Ravinia 2011 in Prokofieff's Romeo and Juliet. She joined the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in 2009 and has been its principal keyboardist since 2011. She has also been on the piano faculty at the People's Music School of Chicago.