Izumi Tateno (Piano)

Izumi Tateno is a top Japanese pianist who has performed over 3,000 concerts around the world and released one hundred recordings.
In 1968, he placed second at the Messiaen International Piano Competition. In 1976, the Finnish government awarded him the Order of the First Class Knight of the Lion of Finland. Since1981 he has been beneficiary of a stipend given by the government of Finland. He is presently the president of the Sibelius Society of Japan.
In both 1982 and 1988, Tateno performed as a soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s tour of Japan. In 1984, he performed with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra as a soloist on its European tour. In 1994, he was soloist with a Japan tour by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was invited to the St. Petersburg White Nights Festival in 1995. The same year he gave recitals around Japan and in Helsinki in commemoration of his thirty-fifth year as a concert pianist. In 1996, he received an award from the Japanese foreign minister for his contributions to friendly relations between Japan and other nations. In honor of the two hundredth anniversary of Schubert’s birth, he presented a seven-evening series of over 50 concerts around Japan and Finland.

From 1989 until 1993 he worked as artistic director for the Finland Music Festival, and from 1991, the artistic director of the Nordic Light Sapporo music festival. In 1998 he became the artistic director of an annual event called the “Oulunsalo Music Festival - Izumi Tateno and His Friends.”
On January 9, 2002 Tateno collapsed on stage with an apoplectic stroke. It was right after the last piece at his recital in Finland. It resulted in a paralysis of the right half of his body. After concentrating on continuous rehabilitation, Tateno returned to concert activities and performed recitals throughout Japan in May 2004, playing with only his left hand. His passion for music has moved people and he has been capturing people’s attention since then. Various magazines and TV programmes have taken up his life. Currently, he continues solo activities only with the left hand, and a number of new pieces for the left hand have been written for him by composers who were touched by his activities.
Most active composers as Michio Mamiya, P.H Nordgren, HikaruHayashi,YasuoSueyoshi, Takashi Yoshimatsu, and Kensaku Tanikawa have dedicated their original works to his left hand. The music pieces he worked on as if following water vein of his life give audience unforgettable impression, being backed with his calmly burning love for music.
This year (2007), the first “Piano concerto for a left hand” in Japan composed by Takashi Yoshimatsu will be world premièred.
Tateno has performed as a soloist under such renowned conductors as Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jiri Belohlavek, Eliahu Inbal, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, John Pritchard and Mariss Jansons. He has performed with almost every living Finnish and Japanese conductor - Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Hiroyuki Iwaki and Hiroshi Wakasugi, to name a few.
His broad repertoire ranges from classical to contemporary pieces. He has received high acclaim for his performances and recordings in all genres. Honorable Director of　Minamisouma Shimin Bunka Hall in Fukushima, Japan, and Music Director of Oulunsalo Music Festival in Finland .
In 2006 he was awarded the asibelius Society of Finland by the Sibelius Society of Finland.