Mizuka Kano

This pianist was born in Tokyo and received her first piano lessons at the age of four when staying with her mother. After attending Toho Secondary School for Music in Tokyo, she studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with teachers Hidemitsu Hayashi, Mikako Abe and Mikhail Voskresensky. She took part in a number of concerts at which the best graduates of her School were introduced.

In October 2003, she went to Berlin to continue her studies at the University of the Arts with Klaus Hellwig. Since her diploma examinations in spring 2007, she has been preparing for her graduate recital. Mizuka Kano received valuable suggestions through the master classes with Sergio Perticaroli, Joaquín Achúcarro, Pavel Gililov, Jerome Rose, Piotr Paleczny, Vladimir Viardo and Eliso Virsaladze.

Moreover, she gained formative impressions through her encounters with artistic personalities such as Dang Thai Son, Bruno Canino and also Wolfgang Bottcher, Hartmut Rohde, Pierre Amoyal and Menahem Pressler. Mizuka Kano had been deeply inspired by chamber music since an early stage and has performed in various different instrumentations, from song accompaniments and duos through to piano quintets.

Amongst her awards and scholarships, the following are to be highlighted: The First Prize and Gold Medal at the 15th Robert Schumann International Competition in Zwickau and a scholarship by the President of Germany at the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin as the pianist in the Eos Piano Quartet (2008), a First Prize and Audience Award at the 56th Viotti International Competition in Vercelli/Italy (2005), as well as a Second Prize at the First Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition in Los Angeles (2002).