Arisu Nakao Resume

      Arisu Nakao was born in Osaka, Japan. She played Mozart's D major Piano Concerto No. 26 Coronation with an orchestra when she was only 11. She studied at Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo with A. Tamura, where she obtained BMus and MMus degrees. She was also awarded a Naoaki Fukui Memorial Scholarship. During her study in Japan, she passed the entrance examinations to study in the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with part-scholarship; however, she was not able to attend due to lack of funding. Then she continued her studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with A. Nasedkin, V. Kastelsky, and L. Roschina. In 2002 she came to the UK studying with M. Schreider and R. McMahon. In July 2004 she had completed the Postgraduate Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama with PG Diploma (distinction) and is the recipient of prizes, including “The Julian Jacobson Prize”, “The Lawrence Davies memorial Award” and “The Zbigniew Grzybowski Memorial Prize (The Chopin Prize)”. She has taken masterclasses by K. Mizumura, A. Webersinke, M. Prinz, A. Pizarro, M. Young, and V. Margulis.

She has appeared at the 11th National Young Musicians' Festival and St. Martin-in-the-Fields recital series. In 2004 she held a concert in London, which was organized by the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe. Since 2005 she often appears in the lunchtime recital series in the Wales Millennium Centre.

In 2005 - 2006 season she was in charge of a live music of the world premiere Chase the Glowing Hours with Flying Feet performed by Diversions, the Dance Company of Wales, and took part in the part of their tour. She has also worked for several ballet schools. In 2005 she successfully passed the audition for accompanists in the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and then became one of the official accompanists at the college. She also held her lunchtime recital at The Gate in 2006 and 2007. Based in Cardiff in Wales, her performance attracted a large audience.

She also performed for restaurants and hotels, including the 5-star-hotel, Hilton Cardiff, from 2006 to 2008 as their one and only resident pianist. Being very popular, she entertained customers and guests from all over the world, who belonged to various generations with the wide range of music selection.

In 2010 she had the U.K. & Hong Kong Tour. In 2011 she began her new tour including performance in the St Barnabas Liszt Piano Festival. In her early days, she was awarded the second prize at Osaka region in the Richard Clayderman Piano Competition.

Updated:  December 22, 2011

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