ピアニスト　仲村渠悠子
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Yuko Nakandakari

Yuko Nakandakari is a Japanese classical concert pianist and composer. She was born in Naha, Okinawa. She started playing the piano when she was a child. She has been excellent in piano improvisation since she was a young child.

She spent her high school and college at Toho Gakuen College of Music. She continued her study at the graduate course of the same college and completed at the top.

She moved to Germany in 2003 to pursue her dream to be a pianist and studied piano at Detmold University of Music (Hochschule für Musik Detmold). She graduated at the top from the university and passed the Konzertexamen. She studied piano under Noboru Uechi, Sai Ohtsubo, Yukiko Hibiya, Yoshie Koura, Mikhail Voskresensky, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Anatol Ugorski and András Schiff.

After graduating from Detmold University of Music, she worked as a Korrepetitor of its university and taught her younger students. She has been performing with orchestra, chamber music and solo in Germany, Greece, Korea and China.

In her solo recital, she performs her original pieces and also plays live improvisation inspired by the theme given from the audience. Her solo performances were highly recognized in Germany and the newspapers titled her performances as "Great Talent”, “Yuko’s beautiful World” and “Maestro of Keyboard”. In June 2015, she played her original piano trio Three Short Pieces at Rietberg Monastery in Germany.

She is also highly trusted as an accompanist. She performed with Jozsef Kiss (oboe professor of Detmold University of Music), Lee Cheol Woong (trombone professor of Yonsei University), Wansun-Kim (Korean trumpeter), Sumire Kudo (cellist in New York Philharmonic) and Junichiro Murakami (chief violist in WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne).

In June 2016, she played Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals arranged for one piano version in the joint concert with the Sejong Tree Korean Traditional Orchestra and Sejong Tree Korean Orchestra. In September 2016, she was invited by Korea Asia Culture Center to the First Anniversary Performing Arts-Festival in Gwangju and she gave an intensive lecture on contemporary music to younger pianists.

In July 2019, she held a concert Yuko Nakandakari Concert Series Vol.1 at Palette Civic Theater in Naha, Okinawa. In December 2019, she was invited to Northeast Normal University in Changchu-city, Jilin Province (China). She played Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the university orchestra. She also gave a special lecture on piano improvisation to the music students.

In February 2021, her husband, Janghoon Cho (orchestra conductor and composer) and she recorded her original works Yuko Nakandakari Orchestra Project Sketch of Music. The works were arranged for an orchestra and piano by her husband.

After her twelve-year life in Germany, she returned home to Okinawa in 2015. Currently, she is actively working as a pianist and composer. She also started teaching piano at home and involved in fostering younger musicians.

Awards

• PTNA Level E Piano Competition: Bronze Prize, ANA Award and Sony Award
• The 5th Okiden Sugar Hall Newcomers Competition: Excellent Award
• Saitama Piano Competition: 1st Place and Governor’s Award
• The 10th Japan International Chamber Music Competition: Fourth Place
• Greece Rethymno Seiler International Piano Competition: Diploma Award

Career

• Part-Time Teacher of Detmold University of Music (2009–10)
• Docent of Detmold University of Music (2010–15)
• Part-Time Teacher of Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts (2021–)