Concert tour de force

AWARD-winning Japanese concert pianist Susumu Aoyagi will perform at The Music Estuary in Ballina on Sunday, November 17.

As the only concert date on his short Australian visit, it presents an exclusive opportunity to experience a musical journey through three impressionistic landscapes and cultures.

Born in Managua, Nicaragua, Aoyagi began piano lessons at age five and made his orchestral debut with the Fort Worth Symphony, conducted by John Giordano, at nine years old. He has studied with eminent teachers, including Yuko Fujimura, Fujiko Yamada, Lili Kraus, Klaus Hellwig, and Pascal Devoyon.

Aoyagi has won the Japan National Music Competition for Students, the West Japan Music Award, the Marguerite-Long/Jacques-Thibauld International Competiton in Paris, and several international competitions, including the Alfredo Casella and Ennio Porrino in Italy, and the Jaen in Spain.

He has appeared in orchestras and as a soloist throughout Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Italy, Japan and the US, and received the 28th Chopin-Society Award of Japan in 2002.

Aoyagi’s five solo recordings are highly acclaimed, and he has held the Associate Professor of Piano role at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music since 2001.

The Music Estuary performance program is a tour de force inspired by a collection of artworks and includes Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.28 in A Major, Debussy’s Estampes, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

For tickets to the 3 pm concert at St Mary’s, visit trybooking.com/events/landing/1273927