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One of the most sought-after pianists of his generation, JON NAKAMATSU is a frequent concerto soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and solo recitalist throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He enjoys a continuously expanding career based on a deeply probing and illuminating musicality as well as a quietly charismatic performing style.
Jon Nakamatsu's summer schedule includes a return to the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra for a set of three concerts as well as a debut with the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra , all under the baton of Kazuyoshi Akiyama. He also makes his debut at Oregon's Britt Festivals with conductor Peter Bay and returns to Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival with Christopher Seaman and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights of his upcoming season include return engagements with the Honolulu, Silicon Valley, Syracuse and Topeka symphonies, as well as performances with the orchestras of Allentown, Lexington, Santa Cruz County, Stockton and Tupelo. His recital appearances include Carmel-by-the-Sea, Cincinnati, Corrales (NM), Elon (NC), Fremont, Fresno and Jacksonville Beach (FL). With the Prazak Quartet, Mr. Nakamatsu collaborates at Florida's Sanibel Music Festival, and, with his duo-recital partner, clarinetist Jon Manasse, he performs at the Eastman School of Music, Duke University, St. Bonaventure University and for Charlottesville's distinguished Tuesday Evening Concert Series. He also collaborates with the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society.
Initially brought to global attention in June 1997 by being named Gold
Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Jon
Nakamatsu subsequently appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
at the Hollywood Bowl and the Boston Pops at Tanglewood, as well as with,
among many others, the orchestras of Buffalo, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas,
Dayton, Delaware, Detroit, Fort Worth, Honolulu, Memphis, Milwaukee, Naples,
New Mexico, New World, Portland, Rochester, San Antonio, San Francisco,
San Jose, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Syracuse, Toledo and Utah. Abroad, he
has been heard as soloist with Italy's famed Orchestra del Maggio Musicale
Fiorentino, Berlin's Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Carl Philipp Emanuel
Bach Chamber Orchestra, Santo Domingo's Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional
and Japan's Tokyo and Hiroshima Symphony Orchestras. In 2005, he toured
Spain as soloist with the San Jose Youth Symphony. Mr. Nakamatsu has collaborated
with many of today's leading conductors, among them Kazuyoshi Akiyama,
George Cleve, James Conlon, Grant Cooper, Leslie B. Dunner, Philippe Entremont,
Neal Gittleman, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Marek Janowski, Michael Lankester,
Peter Leonard, Raymond Leppard, Jahja Ling, Keith Lockhart, David Lockington,
Christof Perick, Larry Rachleff, Peter Rubardt, Matthew Savery, Alfred
Savia, Carl St. Clair, Christopher Seaman, Stanislaw Skrowaczeski, Markand
Thakar, Michael Tilson Thomas, Osmo Vänskä, Peter Stafford Wilson
and Samuel Wong. His 1998-99 season was highlighted by a White House performance
of Rhapsody in Blue, hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton.
Jon Nakamatsu's extensive recital tours throughout the United States and Europe have featured debuts in New York City (Carnegie Hall), Washington, DC (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, Paris, London and Milan. The recipient of the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for his semifinal round chamber music performances at the Cliburn competition, he has subsequently collaborated with various chamber ensembles, among them the Brentano, Ives, Manhattan, Miami, St. Lawrence, Prazak, Tokyo and Ying String Quartets. In 2000, 2002 and 2006, he toured the United States with the Berlin Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet.
Jon Nakamatsu's festival appearances include Tanglewood, the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival with Christopher Seaman and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also been a guest artist at France's Evian and Montpellier music festivals and Germany's Klavier Festival Rurh, Festival Casals de Puerto Rico, performing with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Carl St. Clair, and at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, Tacoma International Music Festival, Lincoln's Meadowlark Music Festival, New York's Skaneateles Festival and California's Midsummer Mozart Festival.
Named Debut Artist of the Year (1998) by NPR's "Performance Today,"
Jon Nakamatsu has been profiled by "CBS Sunday Morning" and Reader's
Digest magazine, and is featured in "Playing with Fire," a documentary
on the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, aired nationwide
on PBS. Earlier, in 1995, he was named the First Prize winner of Miami's
Fifth United States Chopin Piano Competition. He records exclusively for
harmonia mundi usa, which has released six CDs, including an orchestral
album containing performances of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto and
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with Christopher Seaman and the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as albums devoted to the music of Chopin,
Foss and Wölfl. Mr. Nakamatsu's most recent release encompasses Brahms's
Sonata No. 3, Op. 5, 7 Fantasies, Op. 116 and 4 Piano Pieces, Op. 119.
Soon to be released are a solo album of Liszt and his first CD with clarinetist
Jon Manasse, a recording of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas.
Jon Nakamatsu has studied privately with Marina Derryberry since the age of six, has worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, and studied composition and orchestration with Dr. Leonard Stein of the Schoenberg Institute at the University of Southern California. In addition, he has pursued extensive studies in chamber music and musicology. A former high school German teacher, Mr. Nakamatsu is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in German Studies and a master's degree in Education.
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