Izumi Kimura (born 10 March 1973) is a Japanese pianist and teacher now living in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

.Kimura, Izumi. "Interview: Questions and Answers." Email, 28 October 2018. Kimura currently teaches at the Dublin City University in jazz and contemporary music studies. As a performer and composer, she has been associated with contemporary music and is perhaps best known for her 2010 début album Asymmetry.

Biography

Izumi Kimura was born in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

-shi,

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, Japan in 1973. She studied music and specifically the piano from an early age. Kimura attended the

Toho Gakuen School of Music is a private music school in Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. History Toho Gakuen was founded in 1948 in Ichigaya (Tokyo) as the Music School for Children, and two years later moved to Sengawa (current address at Wakabacyo, Chofushi, Tokyo) and opened th ...

with Akikio Teranishi,

Akira Miyoshi Akira Miyoshi (三善　晃; January 10, 1933 – 4 October 2013) was a Japanese composer. Biography Miyoshi was born in Suginami, Tokyo. He was a child prodigy on the piano, studying with Kozaburo Hirai and Tomojiro Ikenouchi. He studied F ...

and Kazuoki Fujii. After graduating in 1995, she sought to explore music outside of the classical realm and moved to Ireland, where she studied at the

Royal Irish Academy of Music The Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin, Ireland, is one of Europe's oldest music conservatoires, specialising in classical music and the Irish harp. It is located in a Georgian building on Westland Row in Dublin. An institution which ...

with Ray Keary.

Career

Izumi Kimura a highly acclaimed practitioner of contemporary piano music, improviser, composer, and educator. Her connection to Japan and Ireland gives her music its unique influence. Kimura is an active performer as a soloist and collaborator in contemporary and jazz/improvisation genres. As a soloist she played many festivals such as Music Curren Festivalt, Galway Jazz Festival, she has broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm, performed with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Many of Kimura’s solo works are recorded on albums such as A Dream Within a Dream (2016), Refrains (2012), A Dream and Variations (2012), and Asymmetry (2010). Her début album Asymmetry was released on Diatribe Records and combines works by contemporary Japanese and Irish composers, including Mamoru Fujieda, Takashi Yoshimatsu, Toshinao Sato, Greg Caffrey, Ronan Guilfoyle and Gerald Barry. The critic Karishmeh Felfeli described the album as "one of the most original, creative and stimulating recordings of 2010 to be heard on an Irish label, an absolute revelation". The critic of the Irish Times agreed: "heroic levels of technical fearlessness, stamina and strength in a programme dominated by flying, rumbling bass lines, hard-driven rhythms and counter-rhythms, and thousands upon thousands of notes – she also created a breathing, slow-burn climax – with a more reflective, often intimate style of playing". Kimura has performed with the Crash Ensemble, an Irish ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music, as well as collaborated with musicians and composers such as Julian Arguelles, Sarah Buechi, Greg Caffrey, Benjamin Dwyer, Mamoru Fujieda, Ronan Guilfoyle, Tommy Halferty, Ed Neumeister, Kevin O’Connell, and Stéphane Payen. These collaborations can be heard on albums such as Maelstrom (2016), Cloudscapes (2013),Mogerley, Stephen, "’Cloudscapes- Michael Buckley & Izumi Kimura." YouTube video file. October, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBY6ETVlvSs and Muga (2013).

Discography

External links

Izumi Kimura's website

Asymmetry on the Diatribe website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimura, Izumi 1973 births Irish classical pianists Japanese classical pianists Japanese women pianists Living people 21st-century Japanese women musicians 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century women pianists