12 Variations in C Major on "Ah, vous dirais-je maman", KV 265
Gstaad Piano Academy 2023 with Maria João Pires
Recorded live on August 9, 2023
Yumeka Nakagawa plays Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 12 Variations in C Major on “Ah, vous dirais-je maman”, KV 265
German-Japanese pianist Yumeka Nakagawa is the latest first prize winner of the prestigious Concours International de Piano Clara Haskil 2021 in Switzerland where she also received the Audience Award and Children’s Corner Award. Prior to this she had already been awarded the first prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition 2019 in Düsseldorf and the second prize at the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar 2014. Yumeka has already appeared in venues such as the Wigmore Hall in London, Casa da Música in Porto with Orchestra Sinfonica do Porto under the baton of Christian Zacharias, Tonhalle Düsseldorf accompanied by Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zoi Tsokanou. Furthermore she was invited at festivals, such as the Vevey Spring Classic in Vevey, Festival Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse and the Verbier Festival Academy. Yumeka has also started her career in Japan appearing in various venues. Currently she is a recipient of the Rohm Music Foundation in Japan. Yumeka was born in 2001 in Düsseldorf and she is currently studying at Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar with Prof. Grigory Gruzman Wiener Musikverein.
Biography of Maria João Pires
Born in 1944 in Lisbon, Maria João Pires gave her first public performance at the age of 4 and began her studies of music and piano with Campos Coelho and Francine Benoît, continuing later in Germany, with Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel. In addition to her concerts, she has made recordings for Erato for fifteen years and Deutsche Grammophon for twenty years. Since the 1970s, she has devoted herself to reflecting the influence of art in life, community and education, trying to discover new ways of establishing this way of thinking in society. She has searched for new ways which, respecting the development of individuals and cultures, encourage the sharing of ideas. In 1999, she created the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal. Maria João Pires regularly offers interdisciplinary workshops for professional musicians and music lovers. In the Belgais concert hall concerts and recordings regularly take place. In future these will be shared with the international digital community (pay and non-pay). In 2012, in Belgium, she initiated two complementary projects; the Partitura Choirs, a project which creates and develops choirs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds as in Belgium the „Hesperos Choir, and the Partitura Workshops. All of the Partitura projects have the aim to create an altruistic dynamic between artists of different generations by proposing an alternative in a world too often focused on competitiveness. This philosophy is being spread worldwide at Partitura projects and workshops.
