Shigeo Neriki

Shigeo Neriki ( Japanese 練 木 繁 夫 , Neriki Shigeo ; * 1951 in Tokyo Prefecture ) is a Japanese pianist.

Shigeo Neriki began playing the piano at the age of three and was five years old in a concert that was televised nationwide. After his training at the Tōhō-Gakuen-Musikhochschule with Masayasu Oshima , he went to the USA in 1971 to study with György Sebök at Indiana University . In 1976 he won first prize at the Tucson Piano Competition , and three years later first prize at the Three Rivers International Competition in Pittsburgh.

He has performed with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , the Boston Symphony Orchestra , the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra , the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, the Japan Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra . On the occasion of the bicentenary of the USA, he played Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto in Boston in front of 400,000 listeners. His appearance with Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional in Mexico under Enrique Diemecke in 1991 was critically rated as the best concert of the season. In 1987 he undertook a solo tour of Japan with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen . His performance of a piano concerto by Bartók with the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris was a great success .

Since 1976 Shigeo Neriki has worked regularly with the cellist János Starker , with whom he has given concerts worldwide and made recordings for Dennon, Delos, Star and RCA Victor Red Seal. A recording of works by David Popper in 1990 was nominated for a Grammy Award . He has performed as a chamber musician in Europe, Asia and North America and was a regular guest at the Festival of the Future in Switzerland and the Kirishima International Music Festival in Japan. In 1991 he founded the Tokyo Soloists quartet with violinist Hamao Fujiwara . In 1992 the ensemble was invited to a private concert in front of the Japanese emperor and his family, and in the following year it received the Suntory Music Award .

Shigeo Neriki Professor of Piano at Indiana University Music School in Bloomington. He also regularly gives master classes at the Tōhō-Gakuen Music Academy and the Kunitachi Music Academy in Tokyo, the Sōai University in Osaka and the Elizabeth University of Music in Hiroshima.

Neriki's solo albums have been released by Harmony CD Classic and Meister Music. In 1997 he received a prize from the Japanese government for his recording of Schumann's piano pieces. In 2004 he published the book Give me an A .

Web links

• Shigeo Neriki (piano) (English)