Junko Urayama, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra & Kazufumi Yamashita - Chopin & Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos (2019)

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Junko Urayama, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra & Kazufumi Yamashita - Chopin & Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos (2019)

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Junko Urayama has started piano from the age of 4. After graduated from the high school and the collage of Toho Gakuen School of Music, she continued her study at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland in 1994. She won the 1st Prize and the Special Chopin Prize at the Radziwill International Competition (Poland) in 1995 and the top prize in the Ennio Porrino Piano Competition (Italy) in 1998.

She move to London in 1996 and made her debut recital at the Wigmore Hall successfully. Since then, she performed widely though out Europe as soloist and participated in chamber music as well. She played the Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of V. Ashkenazy in 2002. And, later of the year, she played with the Philharmonia again at the Chichester Festival.

In 2005, she came back to Japan and held a successful debut recital at Ginza Oji Hall. As one of the “Young Virtuoso Series” artists of Steinway Japan, she performs in many cities around the country, and also participates in several charity events for education and welfare in Japan and abroad.

Since 2009, she started a unique recital series “Invitation to the Journey of Heart”, which is featuring a suit for piano, “Paraphrase Fantasque dans Oku-no-Hosomichi par Bash­o pour piano” by Toshio Kashiwagi, which is inspired by Basho’s poem. In 2012, she recorded a CD “VOYAGE” (released by Sony Music Direct) which includes this piece and was selected by Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan in the Art Festival. She has also released other 3 solo CD recordings, “Piano Recital” (2003), “Fantasie” (2005) and “Soirée” (2007) all by Symphonika Records.

Her 5th album “Concertos” which includes Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 (Orchestra: Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor: Kazushi Yamashita) has been released on June 2014. 6th album, “Serce” has been released on 2017.

Since 2018, a new recital series “With Friends”, which is collaborating with various artists in each concert has started.

She has studied with Shigeru Asano, Yoko Okumura, Kazuko Yasukawa, Andrzej Stefanski and Sulamita Aronovsky.