Credits:

Junko Urayama

Description:

A new milestone for the soulful pianist Junko Urayama! Dazzling musical pleasure...an invitation to the open sky...not many performances can lift the listener's spirits like this one. Junko Urayama's piano concertos by Chopin and Rachmaninoff. The presence of the piano was overwhelming, from the massive bass notes that seemed to ring out, to the high notes that sparkled as if stars were falling from the sky. The gradation of the music is nothing short of brilliant. The dazzling musical pleasure was thus born. This is the birth of an album that you should always have by your side and listen to with great care. (She was born in Koriyama and grew up in Sendai, Japan, and began playing the piano at the age of four. She won the first prize at the 1995 Radziwił International Piano Competition and the Chopin Prize for the Best Piano (Poland), the highest prize at the 1998 Porino International Piano Competition (Italy), and many other prizes.Based in London since 1996, she made her debut at the prestigious Wigmore Hall. In 2002, she performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, and in the same year, she was invited by the Philharmonia Orchestra again to perform at the Chichester Music Festival. After returning to Japan in 2005 and making her debut at Oji Hall in Ginza, Tokyo, she has been performing in a variety of projects, and as a member of the "Young Virtuoso Series" of Steinway Japan, she has given concerts throughout Japan and abroad. He is also active in charitable activities for education and welfare in Japan and abroad. In 2009, she started a recital series, "Invitation to a Journey of the Heart" (3 recitals in total), which has attracted attention for its original project featuring "whimsical paraphrases from Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North," inspired by the "Narrow Road to the Deep North. VOYAGE Voyage" was released by Sony Music Direct, and was selected for the Japan Arts Festival.Since 2014, she has given a recital series "The World of Chopin & Rachmaninoff" (4 concerts) at Hamarikyu Asahi Hall, and has released three CDs: "Piano Recital" (2003), "Fantasie Fantasie" (2005), and "Soiree" (2007), all on Symphonica Records (UK). In 2014, she released her fifth CD, "Concertos" (Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 & Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra & Kazufumi Yamashita conducting). Studied with Shigeru Asano, Yoko Okumura, Kazuko Yasukawa, Anjay Stefanski, and Sramita Aronofsky. He is a Steinway Artist.