Nobuyuki Tsujii

Nobuyuki Tsujii
240px Nobuyuki Tsujii in Munich, Germany, November 2015
Born	(1988-09-13) September 13, 1988 Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Pianist, composer
Nationality	Japanese
Website
www.nobupiano1988.com

Nobuyuki Tsujii (辻井 伸行, Tsujii Nobuyuki, born September 13, 1988) is a Japanese pianist and composer.

Background

Nobuyuki Tsujii was born blind (due to Microphthalmia) but with a talent for music. At the age of two, he began to play "Do Re Mi" on a toy piano after his mother had been humming the tune. He began his formal study of piano at the age of four. In 1995, at the age of seven, Tsujii won the first prize at the All Japan Music of Blind Students by the Tokyo Helen Keller Association. In 1998, at age ten, he debuted with the Century Orchestra, Osaka. He gave his first piano recital in the small hall of Tokyo's Suntory Hall at age 12. Subsequently, he made his overseas debut with performances in the United States, France, and Russia. In October 2005, he reached the semifinal and received the Critics’ Award at the 15th International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition held in Warsaw, Poland.

In April 2007, Tsujii entered Ueno Gakuen University, graduating in March 2011.

Tsujii competed in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and tied for the gold medal with Haochen Zhang. He was also awarded the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the best performance of a new work. He played all twelve of Frédéric Chopin's Op. 10 Études as part of his performance in the preliminaries.

He was one of the competitors prominently featured in the Peter Rosen documentary film about the 2009 Van Cliburn competition, "A Surprise in Texas", which was first broadcast on PBS TV in 2010.

In addition to being a pianist, Nobuyuki Tsujii is a composer. At age 12, he performed his own composition "Street Corner of Vienna." He has since released numerous albums of his own compositions. He is a film music composer, and the 2011 recipient of the Japan Film Critics Award for Film Music Artist.

On November 10, 2011, Nobuyuki Tsujii made a debut recital in the main hall (Isaac Stern Auditorium) at Carnegie Hall in New York, as part of the Keyboard Virtuosos II series. Tsujii debuted at the BBC Proms on July 16, 2013 with a performance with the BBC Philharmonic and conductor Juanjo Mena.

Nobuyuki Tsujii is featured in a 2013 English textbook for high schools in Japan.

A 2014 film Touching the Sound, also by Peter Rosen, documents Nobu's life from birth to Carnegie Hall, including footage of his visit to the region in Japan that suffered the devastating aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

Comments on Tsujii

Van Cliburn is quoted as having told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "He was absolutely miraculous. His performance had the power of a healing service. It was truly divine."

2009 Van Cliburn Competition Juror Richard Dyer, a chief music critic for The Boston Globe, said, "Very seldom do I close my notebook and just give myself over to it, and he made that necessary. I didn't want to be interrupted in what I was hearing."

2009 Van Cliburn Competition Juror Michel Béroff, an award winning internationally known pianist, told the Japanese monthly piano magazine Chopin, "The special thing about his performance is his sound. It has depth, color and contrast, the genuine music."

In the documentary "A Surprise in Texas", Menahem Pressler, Cliburn juror and an eminent pianist, says: "I have the utmost admiration for (Nobuyuji Tsujii). God has taken his eyes, but given him the physical endowment and mental endowment to encompass the greatest works of piano. For him to play the Chopin concerto with such sweetness, gentleness and sincerity -- it's deeply touching. I had to keep from crying when I left the room."

Scott Cantrell in his review of the 2009 Van Cliburn competition for The Dallas Morning News wrote that "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."

John Giordano, music director and conductor of Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra who was jury chairman for the Cliburn competition, said in 2010, "He’s amazing. We closed our eyes and it’s so phenomenal that it’s hard to withhold your tears. Nobu played the most difficult hour-long Beethoven piece (Hammerklavier, Sonata no. 29) flawlessly. For anyone, it’s extraordinary. But for someone blind who learns by ear, it’s mind-boggling."

In an interview after the November 2011 Carnegie Hall debut recital of Tsujii, Van Cliburn said on TV Asahi, "What a thrill to hear this brilliant, very gifted, fabulous pianist. You feel God's presence in the room when he played. His soul is so pure. His music is so wonderful, and it goes to infinity to the highest heaven."

In a 2014 review that appeared in The Daily Telegraph U.K., reviewer David Fanning wrote, "...Nobuyuki Tsujii’s performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. This was not just supersonic in its tempos but remarkably clean, and also responsive to the fairy-tale poetry that sets off the steely aggression."

On Tsujii's debut performance with the Munich Philharmonic on November 4, 2015, the Münchner Merkur wrote (translated from German): "At first he seems a little uncertain, but as soon as he sits down at the piano, he is like a different person. The supposed handicap turns out to be his strength: The Japanese sinks into Beethoven's fifth piano concerto. The high chords of the second movement seem to float with his feather-light touch."

Upon the conclusion of a tour in Japan with Tsujii in November 2015, conductor Valery Gergiev said: "He is not only a great musician and star in Japan, he shows that the human resources are virtually limitless. He shows that there is practically nothing that a human being cannot do."

Works

Since his triumph at the Cliburn Competition, Tsujii has gained prominence in classical piano music, especially in his native Japan. His Cliburn CDs, as well as other CDs recorded before 2009, are now widely available. His official Van Cliburn disc (HMU 907505) sold well over 100,000 copies in one year.

Following is a list of his CDs and DVDs, most recent first:

• Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 & 3 Nobuyuki Tsujii CD . Released by Avex Classics on October 21, 2015.
• Impressions Nobuyuki Tsujii CD . Released by Avex Classics on July 22, 2015.
• Nobuyuki Tsujii Works Piano with Orchestra (Maestro! ~ Nobuyuki Tsujii own compositions with orchestra) CD . Released by Avex Classics on January 28, 2015.
• Emperor & Coronation --Nobuyuki Tsujii & Orpheus Chamber Orchestra CD. Released by Avex Classics on January 21, 2015.
• Nobuyuki Tsujii plays Liszt (La Campanella -Virtuoso Liszt! : Nobuyuki Tsujii) CD. Released by Avex Classics on September 24, 2014.
• Touching the Sound: The Improbable Journey of Nobuyuki Tsujii DVD/Blu-ray. Released by EuroArts Music in July 2014.
• 月の光～辻井伸行 plays ドビュッシー (Clair de Lune - Nobuyuki Tsujii plays Debussy) CD. Released by Avex Classics on September 11, 2013.
• Nobuyuki Tsujii at White Nights DVD/Blu-ray. Released by EuroArts Music in January 2013.
• ジェニーへのオマージュ　自作集CD+自作LIVE DVD 'Tribute to Jeanie' self-composition CD and DVD. Released by Avex Classics on December, 2012.
• 辻井伸行 plays 花は咲く Nobuyuki Tsujii plays 'Flowers Bloom'. Released by Avex Classics on October 17, 2012.
• 辻井伸行　モーツァルト・アルバム Nobuyuki Tsujii - Mozart Album. Released by Avex Classics on September 5, 2012.
• はやぶさ　遥かなる帰還　オリジナル・サウンドトラック Nobuyuki Tsujii - Hayabusa Harukanaru Kikan Original Soundtrack, original film music composed by Nobuyuki Tsujii. Released by Avex Classics on February 8, 2012.
• 辻井伸行　カーネギーホール・デビューLIVE Nobuyuki Tsujii Carnegie Hall Debut Live!. Released by Avex Classics on December 28, 2011.
• それでも、生きてゆく　オリジナル・サウンドトラック('Still We Live'Original Sound Track), released by Avex Classics in August 2011
• 神様のカルテ~辻井伸行自作集 Nobuyuki Tsujii Works, 2000-2011, a collection of Tsujii's own compositions, released by Avex Classics in July 2011
• Nobuyuki Tsujii - Yutaka Sado - BBC Philharmonic Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, released by Avex Classics in February 2011
• Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 , with Yutaka Sado and the BBC Philharmonic, released by Avex Classics in February 2011.
• My Favorite Chopin Nobuyuki Tsujii, released by Avex Classics in March 2010.
• Chopin: Piano Works, with two discs, 10 tracks each; recorded at the Chopin Piano Competition in 2005, and re-released by Victor Japan in September 2009.
• Pictures at an Exhibition Nobuyuki Tsujii, released September 15, 2010 by Avex Classics
• Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1; Etudes Op. 10, released by harmonia mundi in 2010
• Nobuyuki Tsujii Cliburn 2009 Preliminary Round Recital, released by harmonia mundi in 2009; also available as a DVD
• Nobuyuki Tsujii Cliburn Semifinal Round Recital, released by harmonia mundi in 2009; also available as a DVD
• Nobuyuki Tsujii Cliburn Competition Final Round Recital, released by harmonia mundi in 2009; also available as a DVD
• Nobuyuki Tsujii, Gold Medalist, 2009 - Winners CD, released by harmonia mundi in 2009
• Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto #2, released by Avex Trax Japan in 2008, with conductor Yutaka Sado and the Deutsches Symphonie
• Début Nobuyuki Tsujii, Avex Entertainment label, 2007: contains one disc of recitals of works of Chopin, Liszt, and Ravel; and a second disc with five original compositions of Tsujii.

Nobuyuki Tsujii has performed successfully with numerous orchestras under the baton of many conductors, both in Japan and abroad. Conductors that he performed with in recent years include Yutaka Sado (Tonkünstler Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin), James Conlon (Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra), Randall Craig Fleischer( Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Youngstown Symphony Orchestra), John Giordano (Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra), Thierry Fischer (Swiss Italian Orchestra), Vladimir Spivakov (Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra), Jean-Marie Zeitouni ( Edmonton Symphony Orchestra), Paolo Carignani (Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra), Mitiyoshi Inoue(Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa), Yuzo Toyama (NHK Symphony Orchestra ), Eliahu Inbal (Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra), Michael Collins (Sinfonieorchester Basel), Lukasz Borowicz (Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa), Valery Gergiev (Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Orchestra Teatro alla Scala and Munich Philharmonic), Kazuyoshi Akiyama (Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra), Tatsuya Shimono (Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra), Alexander Mickelthwate (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra), Stilian Kirov (substituting for Ludovic Morlot) (Seattle Symphony Orchestra), Miguel Harth-Bedoya (Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra), Juanjo Mena (BBC Philharmonic), Arild Remmereit (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Andriy Yurkevych (Munich Symphony Orchestra), Scott Speck (Mobile Symphony Orchestra), Kaspar Zehnder (Sinfonieorchester Basel), Pascal Rophé (substituting for Marc Minkowski) (Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa), Vasily Petrenko (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), Yuko Tanaka (Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa), Michiyoshi Inoue (Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa), Ronald Feldman (Longwood Symphony Orchestra), Sylvain Cambreling (Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra), Christopher Warren-Green(Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra), and Darrell Ang (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic). Nobuyuki Tsujii has also performed with the Takács Quartet and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Piano concertos that Nobuyuki Tsujii has performed include Piano Concerto No. 1 (Beethoven), Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven), Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky), Piano Concerto No. 3 (Prokofiev), Piano Concerto (Grieg), Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff), Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff), Piano Concerto No. 20 (Mozart), Piano Concerto No. 21 (Mozart), Piano Concerto No. 26 (Mozart), Piano Concerto No. 27 (Mozart), Piano Concerto No. 1 (Chopin), Piano Concerto No. 2 (Chopin), and Piano Concerto (Ravel). He has also performed Rhapsody in Blue.

In addition to being a pianist, Nobuyuki Tsujii is a composer. At age 12, he performed his own composition "Street Corner of Vienna." In 2010-2011, he composed the theme music for a Japanese film '神様のカルテ (In His Chart)' as well as for a Japanese TV drama 'それでも、生きてゆく (Still We Live On)'. In June 2011, Japanese figure skating champion Midori Ito performed in a world event (Master Elite Oberstdorf 2011) to the music of "Whisper of the River," composed by Tsujii when he was in high school to express his love for his father after the two took a walk on the Kanda River in Tokyo. Tsujii was the music director and composed the theme music for the Japanese film はやぶさ 遥かなる帰還 The Return of the Hayabusa" released in February 2012. In 2014, he composed the ending theme for the film 'マエストロ(Maestro!)'

Nobuyuki Tsujii was featured in an original short film "Lights of Japan" shown at the World Economics Summit in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2012. In the film, he performed on a grand piano restored from the ravage of the March 2011 tsunami that devastated Eastern Japan. Additionally, he performed in numerous charity concerts on behalf of Japan's earthquake and tsunami victims, including a UNESCO concert held in Paris on March 11, 2012. Part of the proceeds from his 2012 'Flowers Bloom' CD goes towards Japan's earthquake reconstruction effort. In addition to his earthquake release effort, Nobuyuki Tsujii frequently performs benefit concerts at children's hospitals as well as for other causes, such as the Japanese Red Cross. In the summer of 2012, Nobuyuki Tsujii contributed to a one-million rubles donation from the proceeds of an acclaimed concert, in which he performed on July 8 with conductor Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, to the victims of a flood in Kuban that occurred the night before. On October 25, 2015, Nobuyuki Tsujii performed with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston, in partnership with the Japan Society of Boston, benefiting the Boston Higashi School and the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta. On the next day, Tsujii paid a special visit to the Higashi School and "inspired children and staff alike."

External links

• Nobuyuki Tsujii official website
• "Artist Profile: Nobuyuki Tsujii", Avex Classics. (Japanese)
• Parenting Square by Nobuyuki's mother, Itsuko Tsujii (Japanese)
• Information for International Fans of Nobuyuki Tsujii