Hisako Kawamura (Japan) ← Back to list
Born in Nishinomiya (Japan), Hisako Kawamura moved to Düsseldorf (Germany) with her family at the age of 5 where she started studying piano with Kyoko Sawano. She continued
her studies with Małgorzata Bator-Schreiber in Göttingen who provided her with musical and artistic training, and Prof. Vladimir Krainev at the Hannover University of Music and Drama who nurtured the development of her artistic personality.
Kawamura's international concert career kick-started with First Prizes at the Concours Clara Haskil in Vevey, the A. Casagrande International Piano Competition in Terni, the G.B. Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli and the European Chopin Competition in Darmstadt. She also had outstanding successes at renowned international piano competitions as a prizewinner at the Concours Géza Anda in Zurich, the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels.
In 2017, Kawamura performed Saint-Saënsʼ Second Concerto with NHK Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi. Following the success of this concert, she was invited back to perform Akio Yashiro's Piano Concerto with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Kazuki Yamada in 2019 and the Second Concerto by Rachmaninov under Fabio Luisi in 2022.
Kawamura has performed with orchestras including Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Moscow, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductors Jiří Bělohlávek, Vladimir Fedosseyev, Junichi Hirokami, Jakub Hrůša, Eliahu Inbal, Paavo Järvi, Marek Janowski, Zoltán Kocsis, Alexander Lazarev, Mikhail Pletnev, Tatsuya Shimono, Yuri Temirkanov and Kazuki Yamada, among others.
As a soloist, Kawamura has participated in major music festivals such as Klavierfestival Ruhr (Germany), Mozartfest Augsburg (Germany), Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), Klavierwoche Ernen (Switzerland), Festival Auvers-sur-Oise (France), the Chopin Festival Duszniki-Zdroj (Poland), East Neuk Music Festival (Scotland) and Spring Festival in Tokyo.
As an avid and sensitive chamber musician Kawamura performs regularly with cellists Clemens Hagen, Maximilian Hornung and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. She also enjoys a dynamic partnership with the violinist Sarah Christian following the performances and German SWR broadcasts of the complete violin sonatas by Beethoven.
An enriching collaboration between Doric String Quartet was brought to light whilst performing at the prize winner’s concert of the Suntory Music Award in 2023.
Her first recording of Beethoven!s Piano Sonatas (her sixth with RCA Red Seal) was released in April 2019. This album, including the 'Pathétique' and 'Moonlight' sonatas, was the first volume of her on-going Beethoven piano sonata recording project and was followed by the second installment featuring the 'Waldstein' and 'Appassionata' sonatas in October 2019. Her previous albums with RCA Red Seal: 'Chopin: 24 Préludes & Polonaise-Fantasie', 'Rachmaninoff- Album', 'Chopin: Balladesʼ, 'Chopin: Sonata No. 3 and Schumann Humoreske' and ‘Notturno' were also critically acclaimed.
Kawamura!s recordings for other labels feature works by Mozart, Schubert and Prokofiev (DiscAuvers), works by Schubert and Schumann (audite), works by Scarlatti, Debussy and Franck (Edition Klavierfestival Ruhr), Schumann's Piano Quintet (Nippon Columbia), Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra under Junichi Hirokami (Kyoto Symphony Orchestra label), Mozart's Piano Concerto KV 467 with the Argovia Philharmonic under Douglas Bostock (Coviello Classics).
The soundtrack of the Japanese movie 'LISTEN TO THE UNIVERSE' (Japanese title 'Mitsubachi to Enrai') released by Sony Music, features Kawamura as a soloist performing for the lead character of the movie, Aya Eiden. Based on the novel of the same name by Riku Onda, the film tells a story of an international piano competition.
Kawamura has been awarded numerous scholarships from prestigious organisations such as the European Yamaha Foundation, Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Rohm Music Foundation.
In Japan, Kawamuraʼs musical activity has been recognised by the prestigious Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists of Music by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. She was also awarded three important music prizes in 2009: the Fresh Artist Music Prize from the Nippon Steel Corporation, the IDEMITSU Music Prize from Idemitsu Kosan and the Prize of the Chopin Society Japan. Kawamura received also the Iue-Culture and Art Prize from Iue Memorial Foundation and the Hotel Okura Music Prize.
In 2020, Kawamura received the 51.Suntory Music Award. Moreover she was acknowledged by the 12.CD Shop Award and the Music Penclub Japan Award both in the category Classic.
Committed to sharing her musical experience with the next generation of young musicians Kawamura holds a professorship at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen (Germany) and teaches masterclasses at the Tokyo College of Music.