AIPF Personnel | Aloha International Piano Festival

Lisa Nakamichi, Founder & Artistic Director

Lisa Nakamichi, known for her exquisite performances of Mozart has been called “born to play Mozart” by Honolulu Advertiser critic on her concerto performance with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra.Her successful Tokyo solo debut recital sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Culture launched Ms. Nakamichi’s career in Japan. Ms. Nakamichi has since appeared in concerto performances throughout Japan among them the New Star Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo, the Kyushu Philharmonic in Nagasaki,Kyoto Symphony in Kyoto and the Hiroshima Symphony in Hiroshima. Her performance with the Hiroshima Symphony was reviewed as “brilliant Mozartplaying” .

In March 2012, Ms. Nakamichi was the featured soloist in the inauguralconcert of the newly revived Hawaii Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Naoto Ohtomo. Concerto performances with the Honolulu Symphony have totaled over a dozen times and her performance of the Mozart Concerto was reviewed in the Honolulu Advertiser as “above all beautiful”. She has collaborated with the Hawaii Youth Symphony in a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, celebrating Louis Vuitton’s 150th anniversary concert.

Nakamichi has appeared in numerous recitals in major cities of the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan. For the past decade, she has been invited by dignitaries and diplomats to perform in solo recitals, including the residence of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States in Washington,D.C. and residence of the Consul General of Japan in Honolulu. In September 2011, Nakamichi was presented in a recital at the residence of the Japanese Ambassador to

Austria in Vienna. Nakamichi has also appeared in recitals at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, The Symphony Hall in Osaka, Eroica Saal in Vienna, Libby Hall at University of Utah, and University of Alaska,Anchorage, among others.

As juror, Nakamichi has served on the jury of the Cooper International Piano Competition (Cleveland), Waring International Piano Competition (Palm Springs), and Alaska MTA, where she also conducted masterclasses. Nakamichi served on the jury of the PTNA Competition (Piano Teachers’ National Association) for their national finals in Tokyo in August 2018.

Lisa Nakamichi received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Martin Canin and doctoral degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is the founding artistic director of the Aloha International Piano Festival in Honolulu,Hawaii.

Jon Nakamatsu, pianist

Now in his third decade of touring worldwide, American pianist Jon Nakamatsu continues to draw critical and public acclaim for his intensity, elegance and electrifying solo, concerto and chamber music performances. Catapulted to international attention in 1997 as the Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—the only American to achieve this distinction since 1981—Mr. Nakamatsu subsequently developed a multi-faceted career that encompasses recording, education, arts administration and public speaking in addition to his vast concert schedule.

In 2021, Mr. Nakamatsu returned to live performances throughout the United States and in Europe. Between 2020 and the spring of 2021, he was engaged in a myriad of online events including recording, masterclasses and virtual interviews and lectures for organizations such as Chautauqua Institution Piano Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, Van Cliburn Foundation and Chopin Foundation of the United States. In collaboration with clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu also produced and curated an online series of interviews and historical performances taken from the archives of Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, where he and Mr. Manasse have served as Artistic Directors since 2007.

Mr. Nakamatsu has been guest soloist with over 150 orchestras worldwide, including those of Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Florence, Los Angeles, Milan, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo and Vancouver. He

has worked with such esteemed conductors as Marin Alsop, Sergiu Comissiona, James Conlon, Philippe Entremont, Hans Graf, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Gerard Schwarz, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Michael Tilson Thomas and Osmo Vänskä.

As a recitalist, Mr. Nakamatsu has appeared in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Musée d’Orsay and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and in major centers such as Boston, Chicago, Houston, London, Milan, Munich, Prague, Singapore, Warsaw and Zurich. In Beijing he has been heard at the Theater of the Forbidden City, the Great Hall of the People, China Conservatory, and National Centre for the Performing Arts. His numerous summer engagements included appearances at the Aspen, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Vail, Wolftrap, Colorado, Brevard, Britt, Colorado College, Evian, Interlochen, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Santa Fe and Sun Valley festivals. In 2024 he will participate in an extended residency at Bowdoin Festival in Maine and return to Chautauqua Institution in New York where he has served as Artist-in-Residence since the summer of 2018.

With clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu tours as a member of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. Following its Boston debut in 2004, the Duo released its first CD for harmonia mundi usa (Brahms Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano) which received the highest praise from The New York Times Classical Music Editor, James Oestreich, who named it among the “Best of the Year” for 2008. A frequent chamber musician, Mr. Nakamatsu has collaborated repeatedly with ensembles such as the Emerson, Escher, Jupiter, Miró, Modigliani, Prazak, St. Lawrence, Tokyo and Ying string quartets, Imani Winds and Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet with whom he made multiple tours beginning in 2000.

Mr. Nakamatsu’s 13 CDs recorded for harmonia mundi usa have garnered extraordinary critical praise. An all-Gershwin recording with Jeff Tyzik and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F remained in the top echelons of Billboard’s classical charts for over six months. Other acclaimed discs include the recording premiere of Lukas Foss’ first Piano Concerto with Carl St. Clair and Pacific Symphony, Brahms Piano Quintet with Tokyo String Quartet in the quartet’s final recording as an ensemble, and a solo recording including Robert Schumann’s Second Piano Sonata whose YouTube posting has garnered over 600K hits.

Mr. Nakamatsu has been profiled extensively in print, radio, television and online. He has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, in Readers Digest magazine and recently on Live from Here! with Chris Thile. In 1999, Mr. Nakamatsu performed at The White House at the special invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton. He has also performed for the United States Mayor’s Convention in San Francisco and in 2001 was the featured guest artist during the opening and dedication of the Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II in Washington DC.

A former high school teacher of German with no formal conservatory training, Mr. Nakamatsu studied privately with Marina Derryberry for over 20 years beginning at the age of six; worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel since the age of 9; and trained for 10 years in composition, theory and orchestration with Dr. Leonard Stein of University of Southern California’s Schoenberg Institute. Mr. Nakamatsu holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University in German Studies and secondary education. In 2015, he joined the piano faculty of San Francisco Conservatory of Music and in 2023 the Department of Music at Stanford University. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife Kathy and young son Gavin.

Robert Koenig, pianist

Robert Koenig is widely considered one of today’s foremost pianists in the industry. With a wealth of knowledge and expertise that spans four decades, Robert’s collaborations with high-profile artists and chamber ensembles in prestigious venues across the globe has solidified his standing as an invaluable partner and resource to musicians near and far.

From coast to coast and throughout Asia and Europe, in concert and on tour, Robert regularly performs at such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington’s Kennedy Center, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw. He has collaborated with many of this generation’s most renowned musicians, including Augustin Hadelich, Hilary Hahn, Ida Kavafian, Zuill Bailey, Sara Sant’Ambrogio, Miro String Quartet, and members of the Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets. Of significance is Robert’s frequent partnership with legendary late violinist Aaron Rosand, as well as his 30-year collaboration with renowned violinist Elmar Oliveira.

Robert’s discography is vast and musically diverse, with lauded recordings on the Artek, Decca, Cedille, and Naxos labels. One of his many highlights includes a GRAMMY nominated CD for Naxos of William Primrose Transcriptions for Viola and Piano with violist Roberto Diaz.

A favorite at summer festivals in the United States and abroad, Robert has performed at such festivals as Ravinia, Aspen, Caramoor, Mostly Mozart, and Campos do Jordao Festival in Brazil. A strong advocate for the music of our time, Robert commissioned American Composer Lowell Liebermann to write Trio No.2 for Flute, Cello, and Piano Op.87 and performed the world premiere at the National Flute Association Convention in Nashville, TN.A native of Saskatchewan, Canada, Robert is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with renowned collaborative pianist Dr. Vladimir Sokoloff. In addition to his decade-long association with the Juilliard School where he served as staff pianist, he also served as Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. Robert currently serves as Professor and Head of Collaborative Piano at the University of California Santa Barbara, where he was Chair of the Music Department from 2019-2022. His summers are spent at the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp where he is Coordinator of Collaborative Piano.Robert Koenig is an official Yamaha Artist.

CONTACT US