[nfb-talk] FW: Blind pianist wins 2009 Van Cliburn competition

Powers, Terry (NIH/OD/DEAS) [E] Terry.Powers at nih.gov
Thu Sep 2 17:28:50 UTC 2010




________________________________
From: Carlos Caban [mailto:cecaban at comcast.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 12:59 PM
To: Powers, Terry (NIH/OD/DEAS) [E]
Cc: Carlos Caban
Subject: Blind pianist wins 2009 Van Cliburn competition

Last night I watched a special on WETA about the 2009 piano competition named for Van Cliburn.... the most famous competition.
One of the two winners was a young blind pianist from Japan named NOBUYUKI TSUJII.  It was a great special!

Here is the website for his biography with the text below.
http://www.cliburn.org/uploads/pdfs/winners_bios/tsujii.pdf

NOBUYUKI TSUJII

NANCY LEE AND PERRY R. BASS GOLD MEDALIST AND AND WINNER OF THE BEVERLEY TAYLOR SMITH AWARD FOR THE BEST PERFORMANCE OF A NEW WORK THIRTEENTH VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

When Gold Medalist Nobuyuki Tsujii (pronounced No-boo-you-key Soo-gee) rose from the piano having completed his final performance at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, audience members leapt to their feet, and jurors were moved to tears by his passionate interpretation of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11. The extraordinary and poignant performance by the young pianist from Japan and resulting audience fervor has taken on a momentum that Time Magazine coined "Nobu Fever."

Mr. Tsujii is in high demand by presenters and orchestras worldwide and has catapulted to rock star status in Japan. In the 2009-2010 season alone, he performed over 50 engagements throughout Asia, in addition to appearances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Aspen Music Festival and Academy in Colorado, Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany, and in recitals across the United States.

In the summer of 2010, Mr. Tsujii made an acclaimed debut at the Ravinia Festival, which the Chicago Tribune praised for "fearless technical assurance, accuracy and musicality...the rounded tone, suppleness of line and lyrical grace he brought." He followed this with an appearance at a gala event featuring all three medalists of the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in concert with the National Orchestra of the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo and a residency at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy.

Highlights of Mr. Tsujii's 2010-2011 season include appearances at the Mondavi Center and UCLA Performing Arts Center with the Takács Quartet and a tour of Japan with the BBC Philharmonic under the baton of Vladimir Spivakov. He will perform solo recitals in all regions of the United States during October and March, as well as in concert with the Edmonton, Hudson Valley, and Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestras. A European tour in the winter will take him to Belgrade, Berlin, Basel, Manchester, and Moscow.

In addition to his gold medal, Mr. Tsujii won the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work for his interpretation of John Musto's Improvisation & Fugue, which he performs again as part of the Cliburn at the Modern series in Fort Worth in October 2010. His ability to learn and perform challenging scores was referenced by Scott Cantrell in his review for The Dallas Morning News: "It's almost beyond imagining that he has learned scores as formidable as Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata by ear...Through all three rounds, he played with unfailing assurance, and his unforced, utterly natural Chopin E-Minor Piano Concerto was an oasis of loveliness."

A documentary on his extraordinary achievement as the first-ever Gold Medalist from Japan in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was broadcast on NHK television throughout Japan. Peter Rosen's documentary of the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, A Surprise in Texas, features Mr. Tsujii prominently and was released to critical acclaim. The success of his debut recording, debut, on the Avex label led to a second recording of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. A third all-Chopin recording is soon to be released. The live recording of his appearance at the Cliburn Competition was released by harmonia mundi and named "Critic's Choice" by Japan's foremost recording magazine Record Geijutsu. His complete competition performances are available at Cliburn.tv.

Blind since birth, Nobuyuki, who is referred to as "Nobu," believes that "there are no barriers in the field of music." His philosophy was first affirmed at the age of 7 when he was named first-prize winner at the All Japan Blind Students Music Competition. At the age of 12, he made noted recital debuts at Tokyo's Suntory Hall and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Since then, he has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and played with most of Japan's leading orchestras, as well as the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. In 2005, at the age of 16, he was presented the Critic's Award at the Fifteenth International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Poland.

Nobuyuki Tsujii is currently a participant in the performer's program at Ueno Gakuen University and has studied with Masahiro Kawakami, Yukio Yokoyama, and Kyoko Tabe.

Mr. Tsujii enjoys swimming, skiing, hiking, and communing with nature. When he met with 275 piano students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area following the competition, he advised them to "Please practice your best, but also please remember that you have to take the time to experience life to give your music meaning. I do things like mountain climbing, swimming, skiing, walking by the river. Whatever you like to do, this will help you enjoy your music more."

For additional information, please contact: Alann B. Sampson Chairman and Executive Director pro tem Van Cliburn Foundation
2525 Ridgmar Boulevard, Suite 307 Fort Worth, Texas 76116 817.738.6536 (T) 817.738-6534 (F) alanns at cliburn.org<mailto:alanns at cliburn.org>



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