Nobuko Imai
Nobuko Imai ( Japanese 今井 信 子 , Imai Nobuko ; born March 18, 1943 in Tokyo ) is a Japanese violist who became known both as a chamber musician and as a soloist. Since 1988 she has played an Andrea Guarneri from 1690.
Live and act
Nobuko Imai studied at Toho Music Academy in Tokyo as well as at Yale University and the Juilliard School of Music in the USA. She was successful in the two most important international viola competitions : at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, she received the highest prize, and at the International Viola Competition in Geneva she received second prize. She taught for twenty years at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold , then at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, the Conservatoire de musique de Genève and at the Conservatoire Supérieur et Académie de Musique Tibor Varga in Sion . Imai is artistic advisor to Casals Hall in Tokyo, where she directs an annual viola festival . Since 2007 she has been professor of the Kronberg Academy Masters course .
Imai was a member of the Vermeer Quartet for several years before she founded the Michaelangelo Quartet in 2002 , in which she plays with Mihaela Martin , Daniel Austrich and Frans Helmerson . She worked in chamber music projects with soloists such as Martha Argerich , Kyung-Wha Chung , Heinz Holliger , Mischa Maisky , Midori , Murray Perahia , Gidon Kremer , Yo-Yo Ma , Itzhak Perlman , András Schiff , Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman and performed with them the world-renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra , the Vienna Symphony Orchestra , the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the London Symphony Orchestra , Boston Symphony Orchestra , Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo.
Nobuko Imai is particularly committed to the music of contemporary composers. Toru Takemitsu composed the concert A String around Autumn for her . In 1995 she initiated three Hindemith festivals in Tokyo, London and New York. In 1996 she was awarded the Suntory Hall Arts Prize , the highest cultural honor in Japan. She founded the East West Baroque Academy for young musicians from Japan and the Netherlands .
Among the more than thirty CD recordings by Imai, the complete recording of the suites for solo cello in the arrangement for solo viola by Johann Sebastian Bach received particular attention.
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Imai, Nobuko |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 今井 信 子 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese violist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 18, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tokyo |