 Toru Takemitsu composed for her a Viola Concerto "A String Around Autumn" in 1989.Between 1983 and 2003 Imai taught as a Professor at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold.She currently teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (website of conservatory), at the Conservatoire Supérieur et Académie de Musique Tibor Varga in Sion, Switzerland, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève in Geneva (website of conservatory) and at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.