Year: 2019

A new recording, Toby Hoffman Viola Recital (SHOFUSHA) is now available for download and streaming!

It’s a truly beautiful album in which I collaborated with violist Toby Hoffman. Toby came to the SHOFUSHA studio in Lake Yamanaka last autumn for several weeks of intensive solo and ensemble recordings. This album collects the jewels of the Viola repertoire: Schumann’s Märchenbilder, Milhaud’s sonata, Britten’s Lachrymae, and a brand new piece by Toby’s brother Joel Hoffman. For these recordings, he played a Viola made by his life long friend, violin maker Yu Iida. Toby mentioned to me that he chose the pieces for this album to showcase the character of this magnificent instrument.

I am excited that the album is finally available and I hope it will reach a lot of people! https://linkco.re/fGxeCetc

Yesterday, the Amadeus Society Orchestra held their 52nd concert to a packed house at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. I performed Ravel Piano Concerto in G major led by Maestro Koji Kawamoto. I have always wanted to perform this concerto and I was delighted to play with such a dedicated orchestra and wonderful conductor☺️🎹✨

On April 14th, I will perform Ravel’s piano concerto in G major with the Amadeus Society Orchestra and Maestro Koji Kawamoto at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. I always loved this beautiful concerto and I am truly looking forward to the concert this Sunday.

The final concert of the tour was in the National Concert Hall in Taiwan on April 3rd. We absolutely love this concert hall, and I feel blessed to perform with Christine again this year!

Christine and I came back to Guangzhou this year again. On March 31st, we performed two concerts at the Guangzhou Opera House as part of their Woman’s Arts Festival. After the first concert, we had a fantastic Chinese food that gave us great energy to go back and play our second performance💪 It was wonderful to see some faces that we recognized from our previous concert in 2017.

Christine’s tour continues in China. On March 28th, we performed in Jiangsu Centre for the Performing Arts in Nanjing. It was a beautiful hall inside and the outside architecture was so dramatic!

Christine Walevska and I performed at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo. My heart is still filled with wonderful musical moments at this gorgeous hall. 
This concert was dedicated to raising funds for children who lost their parents to the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. I am grateful for the opportunity to make this small contribution through music. It was also heartwarming to see an elderly woman who told us that she attended Christine’s recital in Japan in 1974, and today she felt transported back to that time almost half a century ago!

Concert in Guangzhou, China!
Clarinetist Wang Tao and I performed at Guangzhou Opera House last night. The program was from our album, Spin 旋. The theme is dance and we played colorful pieces of Tchaikovsky, Lutosławski, Kreisler, D’rivera, Piazzolla and etc.. I smiled when the page turner was dancing to the music😊

It was a wonderful experience to perform Tchaikovsky’s third piano concerto with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Kazuyoshi Akiyama. 
The 3rd piano concerto is Tchaikovsky’s last composition and is rarely played. First conceived as the 7th symphony, it took a winding path to become a piano concerto. It is a mysterious work, but it’s filled with noble and proud Tchaikovsky sound. It was a gift to get to work on this rare piece with the amazing orchestra!! Magnificent orchestral sound still ringing in my ears.

昨日は、東京交響楽団さんの名曲全集シリーズ＠カルッツかわさきでの本番でした。
これまで数回しか日本で演奏されたことがないというチャイコフスキー最期の作品、ピアノ協奏曲第3番に取り組ませていただきました。

この曲は当初、「人生」という標題の交響曲として構想されていただけに、
抽象的で謎めいた音の中にもチャイコフスキー晩年の境地を感じることもできます。
悩み多き人生を、誇り高く音楽に昇華させたチャイコフスキー・・
素晴らしいオーケストラサウンドでこの作品を体験でき、
楽団の皆様と秋山和慶先生に心から感謝しています。
悠々としたストリングスの旋律や、懐かしいような管楽器の音、舞台上で聴いた大迫力の音が鮮やかに耳に残っています。

ピアニストとして本当に幸せな時間でした。
演奏を聴いていただきました皆様、ありがとうございました！