4th Takamatsu International Piano Competition

Born in Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan, Shuku Iwasaki studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music under Akiko Iguchi and Motonari Iguchi. Subsequently, she studied at the University of Hartford, The Juilliard School, and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana under Jacob Lateiner, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Sergio Lorenzi, and Irwin Freundlich.

She won third prize in the violoncello-piano duo competition at the ARD International Music Competition, Munich in 1967,and best accompanist prize at Budapest in 1968 and in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1970. She has performed in numerous concerts and made recordings with many world-class musicians such as János Starker, Paul Tortelier, Peter-Lukas Graf, Itzhak Perlman, Andre Navarra, Ivry Gitlis, Uto Ughi, Mischa Maisky, and Maurice Gendron. In addition, she has been teaching the chamber music Master Class every summer at Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy with Professor Riccardo Brengola for over 20 years.

She has been the head of the Music in Style Shuku Iwasaki Chamber Music Series since 1976, for which she received the Fine Arts Festival Award in 1989. She also organized and hosted the Okinawa Moonbeach Music Camp & Festival from 1979 to 1997, and continues to hold the Okinawa International Music Festival with her brother Ko Iwasaki.

In January 1999, Iwasaki received The Royal Norwegian Order of Merit and in March, she and her brother Ko performed in Istanbul, Ankara and Rome as Ambassadors of Music from the Japan Foundation. In addition to her concert career, she serves on the jury of the Valsesia Musica International Piano Competition and the Cantù International Orchestra & Piano Competition in Italy.

She was a professor of the Toho Gakuen Graduate School from 1999 to March 2008, and is currently a visiting professor at Kurashiki Sakuyo University, Shobi University Graduate School and Mukogawa Women's University.In addition, she is an advisor for the Kurashiki Cultural Promotion Foundation. She and her brother Ko received the Fukutake Cultural prize in 2005. She is the Chair of the Jury at the Takamatsu International Piano Competition since 2006. She is the Chair of Young Prague Japanese Organization Committee since 2013.

She won the 24th Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Music Award Special Prize in 2014. She received the 26th Music Pen Club Special Award in the classical music category.

Recent publications include “The Pleasure of Ensembles” (Shunjusha publishing company), “If I Have Music…” (Kibito Shuppan, 2009), and “Daily Basic Exercises for Pianists” (Shunjusha PublishingCompany, 2011),and “Basic Exercises for Pianists” (Shunjusha PublishingCompany, 2014).　

Born in Nicaragua, Susumu Aoyagi started piano lessons at the age of five. After returning to Japan, he won the Japan National Music Competition for Students. While studying at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, he received the West Japan Music Award and went on to study at the Berlin University of the Arts. He also received a prize in the Long-Thibauld International Competition in 1992. Since that time, he has performed in such venues as the Japanese Embassy of Paris and Radio France, and in many places within former East and West Germany and the United States. He has won first prize in several international competitions, including the Jaen Piano Competition in Spain and the Alfredo Casella and Pollino competitions in Italy. He began performing in Japan in 1997 and won the Aoyama Music Award in 2000 as well as the 28th Frederic Chopin Society of Japan Awards. He has released seven CDs, all of which are highly regarded. In 2006, he began producing a series of recitals called “In a Room with Liszt”, featuring Liszt. He has performed with various renowned orchestras, and held numerous chamber concerts with famous artists both in Japan and abroad. In March 2012, he made his debut at the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. He is currently Associate Professor of Piano at the Tokyo University of the Arts and Music and Guest Professor at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Art.

Vincenzo BALZANI graduated with first class honours from “Verdi” conservatory of music in Milan while studying with Alberto Mozzati. Aged 14 he won the La Spezia (E.N.A.L.) and the “Förster - Ricordi” national piano competitions. Two years later he was awarded the “Liszt” prize at “Maria Canals” competition in Barcelona. In 1971 he was top prize winner in many famous competitions as: “Pozzoli” in Seregno, “Città di Treviso”, “F. P. Neglia” in Enna and “G.B. Viotti” in Vercelli. In 1975 he successfully represented RAI at the Maurice Ravel competition in Paris organized to commemorate 100 years since the birth of the French composer.  As concert artist he has performed as recitalist, soloist with orchestra, member of chamber ensemble (from duet to septet) all over the world including the most prestigious Italian theatres and festivals (La Scala, San Carlo, Petruzzelli, Regio in Turin, Olimpico in Rome, Bergamo and Brescia Festival, Festival dei Due Mondi, Settembre Musica, etc.). He has recorded extensively for Radio and TV and has recorded several LPs and CDs including works by Scarlatti, Mozart, Hummel, Beethoven, Chopin (the complete etudes Op.10 and Op.25), Rossini - Liszt, Schubert - Liszt, etc. Since 1973 he has been teaching piano in music academies: he is currently Professor of piano at “Verdi” conservatory of music in Milan. He often serves as judge for many international competitions (“G.B. Viotti”, “Rina Sala Gallo”, “Pozzoli”, “London International Piano Competition”, “Concurso Internacional Compositores de España”, “Tchaikovsky junior” in Kurashiki, “Takamatsu”, “Parnassos” in Monterrey, “Hummel” in Bratislava, etc.) and also holds courses, master classes and lectures in Italy and abroad. In addition to his activities as pianist and teacher he is also artistic director of “Città di Cantù” and “Valsesia Musica”  international competitions and of “Pianotalents” in Milano,

“Pozzolino” in Seregno,“Monterosa - Kawai” juniores contests as well and “ Tadini International Music Competition” in Lovere for chamber music and piano. He has been nominated as artistic committee member of “Pozzoli” piano competition since2010. Since 2009 he has also been artistic director of “Pianofriends” association which he founded in Milan to organize festivals, concerts, stages and seminars.

“A genuine musician” - Isaac Stern. An outstanding international musician of our time, Vietnamese-Canadian pianist Dang Thai Son was propelled to the forefront of the musical world in October 1980, when he was awarded the First Prize and Gold Medal at the 10th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. It was also the first time that a top international competition was won by an Asian pianist.

He began piano studies with his mother, Madame Thai Thi Lien, in Hanoi and later pursued his advanced training at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia with Vladimir Natanson and Dmitry Bashkirov.

Since winning the Chopin Competition, his international career has taken him to over forty countries. Mr. Dang has played with numerous world-class orchestras such as the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, NHK Symphony, St-Petersburg Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Paris among others. In 2015,Mr. Dang was invited as soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy at the “Chopin and his Europe” Festival in Warsaw, Poland.

Other career highlights include a New Year’s Day concert (1995) with Yo Yo Ma, Seiji Ozawa, Kathleen Battle, and the late Mstislav Rostropovich, in a major international event produced by NHK; concerts at Isaac Stern’s last festival in Miyazaki, Japan in 2001, which included three performances with Pinchas Zukerman; and at the Opening Gala Concert of the Chopin’s year in 1999 and at the 2005 International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (Poland).

Since 2001, he has been teaching as Guest Professor at the Université de Montréal. He has sat on the juries of several prestigious competitions including the Clara Haskil Piano Competition and three consecutive times at the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Mr. Dang's album "Chopin's Concertos" with the late the late Frans Brüggen and his Orchestra of the Eighteenth Centuryon Fryderyk Chopin Institute label was awarded in 2013 a Platinum Disc.
http://www.dangthaison.net

Recipient of top awards at Viotti, Busoni and Leeds competitions, Pascal Devoyon became known throughout the world when he received the Silver medal at the 1978 Tchaikovsky competition, the highest prize ever won by a French pianist at this prestigious competition.
Devoyon has performed with major orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony and Japan's NHK Symphony, and has given highly acclaimed recitals at the Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonie and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. His repertoire is extensive and includes the complete Beethoven sonata cycle, major twentieth century composers such as Bartok and Messiaen and numerous works by contemporary composers.
Chamber music has played an important part in Devoyon's career and he has recorded with cellists Steven Isserlis (Fauré, Saint-Saens, Poulenc etc.), Tilmann Wick (Brahms, Martinu...) and Sung-Won Yang (the Beethoven cycle), and violinists Dong-Suk Kang (Schubert, Fauré, Honneger) and Philippe Graffin (Chausson, Saint-Saens). In 2005 he recorded the Messiaen Quartet (“pour la fin du temps”) and the Hindemith Quartet with P.Graffin (violin), C.Carr (cello) and C.Neidich (clarinet).
Since 2006, he is playing regularly in piano-duo with his wife Rikako Murata. They have been invited in France, Germany, Japan, Mexico and Holland. Their first recording, including “les Visions de l’Amen” from Messiaen, “en blanc et noir” from Debussy and “Musiques pour deux pianos” from Merlet, was released in 2008. The second recording “Mastery of Transcription” was released in 2010, including works from Debussy (La Mer) and Ravel (La Valse). This recording was winning an award in Japan. In 2011 they release “Liszt and the devil” with the transcription by Liszt himself of the Faust Symphony and the second Mephisto Waltz. All recordings are released by the firma Regulus.
Since 1999, he has been artistic director of one of the biggest music festivals in Europe, MusicAlp, together with the violinist Dong-Suk Kang.
In 1996 Pascal Devoyon was appointed Professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has been on the jury member for the prestigious competitions such as Long-Thibaud (Paris), Scriabin (Moscow), Leeds, Geneva, Beethoven (Wien). His students has won prizes in the major international competitions including Leeds, Geneva, Queen Elisabeth or Beethoven (Bonn and Wien).
In 2001 Pascal Devoyon was created Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, one of the most prestigious awards of his native country.

Klaus Hellwig first came to international attention after winning prizes at the "Marguérite Long - Jacques Thibaud" competition in Paris and the "Viotti" competition in Vercelli/Italy.
He studied with Detlef Kraus, Pierre Sancan (Paris), Guido Agosti (Accademia Chigiana Siena) and Wilhelm Kempff.

He has given concerts throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, Australia, Brazil, the Middle-East, and the Far East. He has appeared as soloist with many important orchestras. His chamber music partners have included the Philharmonic Octet and the principal wind players of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra's Octet, and the violinists Christiane Edinger and Young-Uck Kim. In 2007 he founded together with violinist Christiane Edinger and cellist Lluis Claret the Berlin Trio. In addition, he has performed extensively with pianist Mi-Joo Lee as a piano duo.

Klaus Hellwig has recorded for all German radio stations, and for many others abroad. He appears on more than 25 records; the latest releases were the four concerti by Carl Reinecke.

After ten years as a professor at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen, Klaus Hellwig began teaching in 1980 at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has given masterclasses in Germany, France, Holland, the Ukraine, Rumania, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Australia, and the USA.

He has served as a jury member in many international competitions, among many others the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Leeds, the ARD competition in Munich (solo and piano duo), the "Busoni" in Bolzano, the Vienna Beethoven competition, the Dublin, the "Viotti" in Vercelli/Italy, the "Robert Schumann" in Zwickau, and in Japan the Sendai and Hamamatsu competitions.

Meanwhile, his students continue to garner top honors at major international competitions, including first prizes at the Gina Bachauer, the Viotti/Vercelli, the Schumann/Zwickau, the Sidney, and the Queen Elizabeth Competitions.

Born in 1943, Shinichiro Ikebe studied composition under Tomojiro Ikenouchi, Akio Yashiro and Akira Miyoshi at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and obtained his master’s degree in 1971. In 1966, he won first prize at the Japan Music Competition. Since then, he has received numerous awards including the Competition Prize of the Ongaku-no-Tomo-sha Corporation, the Otaka Prize (twice), the Salzburg TV Opera Festival Award, the Italian Broadcasting Corporation Prize (three times), the Mainichi Film Music Prize (three times), the Japan Academy Music Award (nine times), the NHK Broadcasting Culture Prize, and the Purple Ribbon Medal. His compositions include Symphony No. 1 to 10, Piano Concerto No. 1 to 3, a violoncello concerto, the operas “The Death Goddess” and “Hoichi, the Earless”, as well as various orchestral, chamber, and choral music. He has also written numerous movie soundtracks including those for  “The Shadow Warrior”, “The Ballad of Narayama”, “The Eel”, “Spy Sorge”, “Paradise of Bart”, and “Glory to the Filmmaker!”, as well as the scores for 470 TV and theater productions, including the historical epic NHK dramas “Dokuganryu Masamune” and “Genrokuryoran”. His published essays include “Sora wo miteimasuka? 1-7” (Are You Looking At The Sky?”) and “Motsuaruto no onputachi” (The Notes of Mozart). He performed regularly on the TV program “NHK Symphony Hour” for 13 years until March 2009. He is currently a guest professor at the Tokyo College of Music, Director General of the Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall and Music Director of Tokyo Opera City.

Daejin Kim is one of the leading pianists and professors in Korea. He won in 1985 the first prize in the prestigious 6th Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition (presently the Cleveland Competition). In 1986, Mr. Kim made his New York debut and received an exceptionally favorable review from the critic for the New York Times. Since then, he has become a prime example of that rare individual who is able to successfully combine both the demanding careers of a productive teacher and a concert artist such as one-day performance of the complete Beethoven's Piano Concertos, and the complete cycle of the Mozart Piano Concertos. His discography includes 2 Piano Concertos by Mozart(K. 488 and K.453) which he conducted the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard.
He has been on jury member for the prestigious competitions such as the Busoni, the Beethoven (Bonn), the Leeds, the Queen Elizabeth and the Rubinstein International Competition. His students have won many prizes, including the first prize in the Clara Haskil and the Leeds (Sunwook Kim), the Takamatsu and the Geneva and the recent Busoni Comeptition(Chloe J.Mun).
In recognition of his achievements, he was awarded 'the Professor of the Year' Award by the Music Association of Korea in 2012, and recently, he received a decoration for ‘the Artist of the Year’ by the Ministry of Culture in Korea.

In 2008, he became the Music Director of the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the major orchestras in Korea. Under his baton, the orchestra made a European tour in Munich, Vienna, Prague and the Merano Festival in 2012. The live recording of the complete cycle of the Sibelius Symphony is scheduled to be released soon on Sony Label.
Daejin Kim is currently the Professor of Piano at the Korean National University of Arts.

Graduated from the Toho Gakuen School of Music and studied under Kazuko Ariga and Motonari Iguchi. After she won the 2nd prize in the 32nd Student Music concours of Japan, She received a scholarship and studied at Texas Christian University (U.S.A.). During that time she studied under Lili Kraus and became a prize winner at Van Cliburn Competition.
After returning to Japan, while she actively played in various places in Japan and took a teaching position at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, she won the best accompaniment award at the 6th Tchaikovsky Competition. Later she performed recitals and concerts in USA, Russia, and Taiwan and studied more in Amsterdam and New York.
She has adjudicated in Student Music concours of Japan, Carl Czerny International Piano Competition (Prague) International Scriabin Competition (Moscow), Atlanta International Piano Competition, International Rachmaninoff Piano Competition for Young Pianists (Los Angeles), and Geneva International Music Competition. In addition, she has recorded CDs and edited scores.
Currently she is Vice President of Japan Piano Teachers Association, a board member of the Frederic Chopin Society of Japan, and a specially-appointed professor at the Toho Gakuen School of Music.

One of the most outstanding Polish pianists and professors, top prizes winner at five international piano competitions. He completed piano studies at the Frederick Chopin Music University in Warsaw in the class of prof. Jan Ekier. Artistic contact with Arthur Rubinstein and Witold Lutoslawski had a huge impact on the final development of his artistic personality. Since great success at the 8th International Frederic Chopin Competition, he has enjoyed his career until now, constantly performing numerous concerts on all continents.

He has performed with famous orchestras including Chicago Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, BBC Symphony, Gewandhaus, Tonhalle Zürich, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Santa Cecilia etc. He has served frequently as a judge and chairman at many leading international piano competitions including the International Chopin Piano Competition, Tchaikovsky Competition, Piano Competitions in Leeds, Cleveland, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, Vienna and many other international competitions. He has recorded numerous CD’s with EMI and BBC Classic, Naxos. Two of his National Edition Chopin albums were distinguished with a status of the “Platinum” and “Gold Disc”. Since 1993 he has been the Artistic Director of the International Chopin Piano Festival in Duszniki Zdrój and since 2004 the Artistic Director of the International Paderewski Piano Competition.In 1998 the President of Poland has conferred on him title of Professor. Piotr Paleczny conducts the piano class at the Frederick Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Etsuko Terada has marked the anniversary years of several composers with important concert events: in 2006, a four-evening series of the complete Mozart piano sonatas for the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth; and a concert of the complete Chopin Mazurkas and Sonatas, and a 5-recital series of Schumann’s major works performed in chronological order, for the 200th anniversary year of those composers in 2010.
Currently Terada is performing the series “The Secret of Key,” in which each performance consists of works in the same key, showing how a key can sound different according to the particular composer and era.
After studying piano in Japan under Setsuko Murata, Takako Kondo, and Hiroshi Murata, Terada went to study in Vienna at the age of 16. In 1977 she won Third Prize and a gold medal at the second Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, and in 1978 she was a prize winner in the Leeds International Piano Competition. She went on to appear in international music festivals, perform in recital and with orchestras in Japan and other countries, and appear in duo concerts and piano recitals with her pianist husband Kikuo Watanabe.
Terada delights audiences with a sound extolled as resembling "pearl drops" and a technique praised as being “fine as a golden thread," as well as with the brilliant and glittering atmosphere she creates in her performances.
Among her numerous recordings, Terada has released CDs of works by Chopin titled Nohan and Nohan II on the Exton label. In April 2012 she and Ikuo Watanabe released a CD of two-piano works on the Triton label called Spring Festival Music & Rachmaninov, which has been highly acclaimed and named as a special selection of Record Geijutsu magazine.

Mikhail Voskresensky commands an international reputation as a pianist in the great Romantic tradition. He is prizewinner of four international piano competitions (Schumann in Berlin, in Rio de Janeiro, George Enescu in Bucharest, and Van Cliburn in Fort Worth, Texas). He is the only pianist in Russia to perform all of Chopin's piano compositions during one concert season; this in 1982-83, in nine recitals in the Maly Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. In 1957 the young pianist took part in the Prague Spring Festival where he performed European premiere of Shostakovich Second Piano concerto with the presence of Shostakovich himself. He is a distinguished professor at the Moscow Conservatory, the chair of the professorship of piano faculty. His pupils won 126 international. prizes including 55 gold medals. He is President of the Scriabin International Society and the chairman of jury of Scriabin International. Competition. His discography has more than 60 CD’s including all piano concertos by Mozart, all sonatas by Scriabin, 3 and 5th concertos by Beethoven, 2d
Concerto by Brahms, concertos by Shostakovich, Schnitke, Britten, Khachaturian. He played with more than 150 conductors (Dutoit, Svetlanov, Mazur, Pritchard, Rojdestvensky, Ashkenazy, Kondrashin etc.)
Official web-site is http://www.mikhailvoskresensky.com