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NORIKO OGAWA was awarded third prize in the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition and has since achieved considerable renown in Europe, America and in her native Japan. Following her success at Leeds, Ogawa gained a devoted following in the UK, such that she now spends over half the year in Europe.
Ms. Ogawa appears with all the major UK, European, Japanese and U.S. orchestras.
Amongst the leading conductors she has worked with are Hans Vonk, Libor
Pesek, Leonard Slatkin, Charles Dutoit, Vernon Handley, Tadaaki Otaka,
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Kasper de Roo and Günther
Herbig. Renowned as a recitalist and chamber musician, her concerts have
taken her all over the world and included a tour of Japan with the Berlin
Philharmonic Wind Ensemble and the leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, Rainer
Honeck. Here she remains much in demand, appearing at major arts festivals
and making regular radio and television broadcasts for both NHK and Nippon
television. 2001 saw the launch of her piano duo with renowned pianist
Kathryn Stott, with whom she has just completed a highly successful Japanese
tour. Ogawa also gives recitals with Steven Isserlis, Isabelle van Keulen
and Michael Collins. She records regularly for BBC television and radio,
and her engaging personality make her a popular guest on BBC Radio 3's
In Tune series.
Recent debut concerts include with the Czech Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Vancouver Symphony and the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra (with whom she performed all the Beethoven concertos). Forthcoming concerts include a duo recital at Birmingham Symphony Hall, recitals in the US, Japan and concerts with the BBC Scottish, Stavanger Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aalborg Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic under Myung-Whun Chung. Plans also include a solo tour of Australia, visits to the Kenya Festival and Singapore International Piano Festival.
Since 1997 Noriko Ogawa has recorded exclusively for the Swedish label
BIS Records. Her recordings include works by Japanese composers, including
Toru Takemitsu (Riverrun, recorded with BBC National Orchestra of Wales
was awarded Editor's Choice in the January edition of Gramophone Magazine),
Rachmaninov Second and Third Piano Concertos, recorded with the Malmö
Symphony and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, which was selected as
the Critics' Choice 1998 by BBC Music Magazine. Ogawa has also released
the remaining concertos of Rachmaninov, and discs of music by Tcherepnin
and Saint-Saens. Her latest series for BIS is the complete solo works for
piano by Debussy of which volumes one and two (winning Editor's Choice
in the March 2003 edition of Gramophone Magazine) met with critical acclaim
the world over and confirmed her profile as a Debussy expert. She has recently
released her recording of the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor with the
Bergen Philharmonic and future releases are the 3rd disc in the Debussy
series and the first recording with her duo partner Kathryn Stott featuring
music by Delius. Noriko Ogawa's first Debussy album was chosen to be included
in a series representing the 30th anniversary of BIS.
In 1999, Noriko Ogawa was awarded the Japanese Ministry of Education's Art Prize in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the cultural profile of Japan throughout the world and she has just been awarded the Okura Prize for her outstanding contribution to music in Japan. In 2004 she was appointed as one of the advisors for a new concert hall in her hometown in Japan, the MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall.
A member of the adjudicating panel for the 2000 grand final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, for the last three years she has adjudicated the competition's piano final. In 2006, Noriko Ogawa will serve as a Jury member for the Honens International Piano Competition, Calgary.
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