NORIKO OGAWA (piano) was awarded third prize in the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition, amply rewarding the scholarships she had won and support she has inspired over the years. Noriko has since achieved considerable renown in Europe, America and in her native Japan where she is a national celebrity.

In 1999 Noriko Ogawa was awarded the Japanese Ministry of Education’s Art Prize in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the cultural profile of Japan throughout the world. Here she remains much in demand, appearing at major arts festivals, performing regularly with the major orchestras and making regular radio and television broadcasts for both NHK and Nippon television. Noriko Ogawa’s recent releases for BIS Records have consolidated her major profile in Japan.

Following her success at Leeds, Noriko Ogawa gained a devoted following in the UK, such that she now spends over half the year in Europe. She records regularly for the BBC as recitalist and soloist, gives chamber recitals and appears with the major UK orchestras, including The Philharmonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Amongst the leading conductors she has worked with are Hans Vonk, Libor Pesek, Leonard Slatkin, Vernon Handley, Tadaaki Otaka, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Kasper de Roo and Gunther Herbig. Engagements abroad have included concerts with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, a German tour with the Schleswig-Holstein Symphony, a tour of Israel and recitals in Paris and Denmark. Noriko has also taken part in a chamber music festival in Australia and toured Japan with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Ensemble and the leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, Rainer Honeck. In 2000 she was a member of the adjudicating panel for the grand final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, and in 2002 she adjudicated the piano final of the same competition, 2003 sees her once again adjudicating the final; 2001 saw the launch of her piano duo with renowned pianist Kathryn Stott.

Recent debut concerts include the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, a highly acclaimed performance with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Boulder Philharmonic (with whom she performed all the Beethoven concertos). Forthcoming and recent concerts include recitals in Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Denmark, Norway and Japan and concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic (the premiere of a double piano concerto by Graham Fitkin), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Future plans also include a solo tour of Australia. The Stott/Ogawa Piano Duo will be touring Japan in 2004 with the Fitkin Double Concerto.

Since 1997 Noriko Ogawa has been an exclusive recording artist for the Swedish label BIS Records. Her recordings include works by Japanese composers, including Toru Takemitsu (Riverrun recorded with BBC National Orchestra of Wales was awarded Editor’s Choice in the January edition of Gramophone Magazine), Rachmaninov Second and Third Piano Concertos, recorded with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, which was selected as the Critics’ Choice 1998 by BBC Music Magazine. Noriko has also released the remaining concertos of Rachmaninov, and discs of music by Tcherepnin and Saint-Saens. Her latest series for BIS is the complete solo works for piano by Debussy of which volumes one and two (winning Editor’s Choice in the March 2003 edition of Gramophone Magazine), have met critical acclaim the world over and increased her profile as a Debussy expert. Future & recent releases include Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor with the Bergen Philharmonic, further recordings in the Debussy series and the first recording with her duo partner Kathryn Stott featuring music by Delius. Noriko’s first Debussy album will be included in a series to represent the 30th anniversary of BIS.

‘Every bar of these new performances confirm Ogawa as a most elegant, scrupulously sensitive interpreter…you could hardly find a more skilful or sympathetic artist from a younger generation than Noriko Ogawa.’
Bryce Morrison EDITOR’S CHOICE, GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE, March 2003

Management of Noriko Ogawa: Hazard Chase Ltd, tel: +44 (1223) 312400
January 2004

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