Ikuyo Nakamichi Plays Schumann & Brahms

Ikuyo NAKAMICHI won the first prize and the Masuzawa Prize at the 51st Annual Japan Music Competition in her freshman year at Toho Gakuen School of Music. After taking numerous prizes in Japan and abroad, she began her performing activity in Europe and Japan in 1987.
With a broad repertory ranging from Classical to Romantic, NAKAMICHI has performed as a soloist with Japan’s leading orchestras as well as many European and American orchestras. She is recognized as one of the leading Japanese pianists in terms of both popularity and ability.
She has performed as a soloist with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste; the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk, and the Philharmonia Orchestra, all under Lorin Maazel; the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra under Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi; the English Chamber Orchestra under Pinchas Zukerman; the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Rafael Fr?hbeck de Burgos; and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo J?rvi?earning high critical acclaim.
In 1999, NAKAMICHI gave her debut recital performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 2001 she made her concerto debuts in St. Petersburg and at the Berlin Philharmonie.
Highlights of 2016/2017 season include the tour with Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the tour with Gewandhaus Quartett and recital tour to celebrate 30th anniversary of her debut.
NAKAMICHI has an exclusive recording contract with Sony Music Japan International and has released many CDs. She appears frequently on TV and radio, and contributes to newspapers and magazines. By conveying the joy of music in rich and varied ways, she has gained a large following among the public.

Lina Matsuda graduated from the music high school attached to Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. She then completed the soloist diploma course at Toho Gakuen School of Music, and from 2006 attended Nuremberg University of Music in Germany. She graduated first in her class both from that university in 2007 and from the same university’s graduate school in 2010.

Lina Matsuda gave her first solo recital in 1999, and in 2001 she won 1st Prize in the Violin Division of the 10th Japan Mozart Competition, becoming that competition’s youngest-ever 1st Prize winner. In 2002 she gave a solo recital at Toppan Hall (Tokyo) with the theme “The 16-year-old interpreter of Ysaye.” In 2004, Lina took 1st Prize at the 73rd Japan Music Competition, where she also received Leucadia Prize, Washimi Prize, and Kuroyanagi Prize. In 2007 she was awarded the Diploma Prize in the Sarasate International Competition. She is a winner of the 12th Hotel Okura Music Award, Akiyoshidai Music Academy Award, and 2013 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Music Award.
Lina has performed with many leading conductors and orchestras, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Kanagawa Philharmonic, Sapporo Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, NHK Chamber Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Janacek Chamber Orchestra, and Vietnam Symphony Orchestra.

In 2006, Lina released her debut album on Victor Entertainment, ‘Dolce Lina: Two Mozart Violin Sonatas,’ and gave a highly successful six-city Japan tour with sold-out concert halls in Osaka, Tokyo, and Yokohama. In 2008 she released her second album, “Carmen,” recorded in Berlin with the renowned pianist Pavel Gililov. In 2010, she released “Ravel Live,” recorded live at her recital with pianist Kazune Shimizu at Kioi Hall, Tokyo. In November of that year, she released an album of the complete Ysaye unaccompanied violin sonatas, which was named as a special selection of “Record Geijutsu” magazine.