Shoko Kawasaki
Biography Shoko Kawasaki
Shoko Kawasaki
The pianist Shoko Kawasaki was born in Tokyo.
She is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including the "Ennio Porrino Amici della Musica di Cagliari" International Piano Competition, the "Massarosa International Piano Competition," the "Competition for the Music Prize of the Gasteig Cultural Circle," and the "Kazuko Yasukawa Memorial International Piano Competition." She has received diplomas from the Concours de Gèneve – International Music Competition, the Grieg International Piano Competition, and the New York Dorothy Mackenzie Awards. She has also won five major competitions in Japan, including a composition competition.
In addition to her active concert activities in her native Japan and her current adopted home of Germany, she regularly performs as a soloist with orchestras, at piano and chamber music evenings in numerous European countries (including Italy, Spain, Norway, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Poland), South Korea, the United States of America, and Cuba. She has performed at numerous festivals and prestigious concert series such as “Winners & Masters” (Gasteig/Munich), “Piano Soiree” (Stadttheater/Passau), “Chamber Concerts” (Mozart Halls/Hamburg), “Embassy Concerts” (Japanese Embassy/Berlin), “XXIX Festival de la Habana” (Habana/Cuba), “Japan-Korea Friendship Festival 2005” (KBS Hall/Seoul), “International Keyboard Festival” (New York), “Spring Festival in Tokyo”, “O. Messiaen Project”, “F. Chopin Festival”, and “C. Debussy Anniversary Festival” (Tokyo). Many of her performances have been recorded for major radio stations (including Bayerischer Rundfunk, ORF, NHK) and television stations in Germany, Italy, Japan, and Korea. Numerous well-known newspapers (including Süddeutsche Zeitung, Münchner Merkur, WAZ) and the music press have also highly regarded her performances.
Her two solo albums were released on CD in 2017 and 2019. They were released by Studio NAT and received top marks in the music journal The Record Geijutsu.
In 2013, she was awarded the Grazie Musik Prize. It was established to recognize and promote outstanding young artists. Shoko Kawasaki is the first person to be honored in this way. Social engagement is important to Shoko. Since 2013, she has regularly participated in charity concerts for orphans and the severely disabled, where there is an exchange between audience and musicians. She finds this role very enriching.
She studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts and, as a particularly honorable distinction, was awarded the Leonid Kreutzer Prize upon her graduation. She then worked on her dissertation at the same university, analyzing and examining G. Ligeti's piano etudes from the perspective of a practicing pianist for the first time. She received her doctorate in 2014.
She completed the postgraduate Master Class Certificate Program at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts. She has received scholarships from numerous organizations, including the Rohm Music Foundation and the Honjo International Scholarship. She has also received funding from the Deutschlandstipendium and the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation.
