is a Japanese classical pianist. She was born in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

but grew up in Europe, attending the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

with older sister Mari. She made her debut in 1991 with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and was the youngest winner of the International Piano Competition in Munich at age 19. Since then she has performed with various symphonic orchestras and at cultural festivals in Europe and Latin America and has released a number of recordings.

Background and education

Kodama was born in Osaka, Japan, but spent her early years in Europe, with her family moving there in 1973 and attending school in Germany. She began playing piano at age three and like older sister Mari, did her professional studies at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris with Momo entering at age 13. Kodama studied with

Murray Perahia Murray David Perahia () (born April 19, 1947) is an American pianist and conductor. He is widely considered one of the greatest living pianists. He was the first North American pianist to win the Leeds International Piano Competition, in 1972. Kno ...

András Schiff Sir András Schiff (; born 21 December 1953) is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor, who has received numerous major awards and honours, including the Grammy Award, Gramophone Award, Mozart Medal, and Royal Academy of Musi ...

Vera Gornostayeva Vera Gornostayeva (October 1, 1929 – January 19, 2015) was a Russian pianist and pedagogue. An Emeritus Artist of the Russian Federation at the time of her death, Gornostayeva was a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where her te ...

and

Tatiana Nikolayeva Tatiana Petrovna Nikolayeva (russian: Татья́на Петро́вна Никола́ева, ''Tat'jana Petrovna Nikolajeva''; May 4, 1924November 22, 1993) was a pianist, composer, and teacher from the Soviet Union. Life Nikolayeva was born ...

Career

Kodama made her debut in 1991 at the

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer t ...

, and since then has performed with the

Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. History The Berlin Philharmonic was fo ...

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

Bayerisches Staatsorchester The Bavarian State Orchestra (german: Bayerisches Staatsorchester, italic=no) is the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany. It has given its own series of concerts, the , since 1811. Profile On 9 December 2011, this ensemble c ...

NHK Symphony Orchestra The is a Japanese broadcast orchestra based in Tokyo. The orchestra gives concerts in several venues, including the NHK Hall, Suntory Hall, and the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. History The orchestra began as the ''New Symphony Orchestra'' o ...

, NDR Hamburg,

Orchestre de chambre de Paris The Orchestre de chambre de Paris (OCP) is a French chamber orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra performs throughout Paris with concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris, where it is a resident ensemble, and also at such venues as the Théâtre des ...

, Orchestra Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmon ...

. She has collaborated with violinists

Christian Tetzlaff Christian Tetzlaff (born 29 April 1966) is a German violinist. Biography Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg. His parents were amateur musicians and met in a church choir. He began playing the violin and piano at the age of 6, and made his concert debu ...

Renaud Capuçon Renaud Capuçon (born 27 January 1976) is a French classical violinist. Since late 2016 he has been teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music. Biography Capuçon was born in Chambéry on 27 January 1976. He entered the conservatory in ...

Augustin Dumay Augustin Dumay (born 17 January 1949) is a French violinist and conductor from Paris. Biography Dumay was invited as a soloist to appear with Yo-Yo Ma in Paris by Herbert von Karajan. Later on, he performed Béla Bartók's ''Second Concerto'' wi ...

; cellists

Mario Brunello Mario Brunello (born 1960) is an Italian cellist and musician. The turning point in his artistic life was the 1986 victory of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Life and career Origins and musical beginnings Brunello, born in Castelfra ...

Steven Isserlis Steven Isserlis (born 19 December 1958) is a British cellist. He has led a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. Acclaimed for his profound musicianship, he is also noted for his diverse repert ...

and Christian-Pierre La Marca, her sister, pianist

Mari Kodama (born 1967) is a classical pianist who has performed in Europe, North America and Japan. Background Kodama was born in Osaka, Japan in 1967 and raised in Germany and Paris, France due to her father's postings in these countries as well as Switze ...

; and the clarinettist

Jörg Widmann Jörg Widmann (born 19 June 1973) is a German composer, conductor and clarinetist. In 2018, Widmann was the third most performed contemporary composer in the world. Formerly a clarinet and composition professor at the University of Music Freibu ...

. Kodama has also appeared in various cultural festivals such as the

Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Marl ...

in the United States,

Verbier Verbier is a village located in south-western Switzerland in the canton of Valais. It is a holiday resort and ski area in the Swiss Alps and is recognised as one of the premier off-piste resorts in the world. Some areas are covered with snow all ...

in Switzerland;

Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron The Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron is an international piano festival, founded in 1980 by Paul Onoratini (1920–2010), then mayor of La Roque-d'Anthéron and , then an intern at the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, seeking to create ...

and Festival d’Automne in France, Festival Enesco in Romania, Festival Tivoli in Denmark, Settembre Music in Italy, and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. She performed at the Festival Beethoven in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

in 2013, and with sister Mari at the

Festival Internacional Cervantino The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), popularly known as ''El Cervantino'', is a festival which takes place each fall in the city of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico. The festival originates from the mid 20th century, when short play ...

in Mexico in 2014. Her first major award was first place at the 1987 Concours International d’Epinal. Kodomo was the youngest winner at the International Piano Competition in Munich at age 19. She later won the 1999 International Terence Judd Award in England, and the 2011 Saji Keizo Prize from the

Suntory Foundation (commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and makes Japanese whisky. It ...

Artistry

Her repertoire is mostly French and Japanese, specializing in more modern compositions (20th century and contemporary) . Composers include

Toru Takemitsu TORU or Toru may refer to: *TORU, spacecraft system *Toru (given name), Japanese male given name *Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan *Tõru Tõru is a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County in western Est ...

, Ichiro Nodaïra,

Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Germany but returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio ''Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima' ...

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...

and

. Her playing has been described as “crystalline” with Philip Kennicott stating, ''She’s a natty player fastidious when it comes to textures and transparency. Her occasional re-discovery of quietness was refreshing, and she bought out those rare moments when Tchaikovsky says two things at once rather than one thing very insistently. There seems to be intelligence at work''.Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, December 11, 2000

Recordings

* Martinu - Double Concertos.

Lawrence Foster Lawrence Foster (born October 23, 1941) is an American conductor of Romanian ancestry. He is currently the artistic director and chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the music director of the Marseille Opera and the ...

Sarah Nemtanu Sarah Nemtanu (born 1981) is a Franco-Romanian classical violinist. Biography Nemtanu started studying the violin with her father, Vladimir Nemtanu, solo concertmaster of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. She then studied at the Conser ...

, Deborah Nemtanu, Magali Demesse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille. PENTATONE PTC 5186658 (2018) *

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

- Ballet Suites for Piano Duo. Mari Kodama, Momo Kodama. PENTATONE PTC 5186579 (2016). *''La Vallée des Cloches'' (2012) *''

Catalogue d'oiseaux ''Catalogue d'oiseaux'' ("Catalogue of birds") is a work for piano solo by Olivier Messiaen consisting of thirteen pieces, written between October 1956 and September 1958. It is devoted to birds and dedicated to his second wife Yvonne Loriod. Pre ...

'' (2009) *''A Night of Rhythm and Dance: Live from the Waldbühne, Berlin'' (2006) with Susan Graham, Mari Kodama, Eitetsu Hayashi, Kent Nagano (conducting Berlin Philharmonic) *''Vingt Regards Sur L’enfant-Jesus'' (2005) *Chopin Piano Works (2003) *''Debussy Impressions'' (2002)

References

External links

Artist web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kodama, Momo Japanese classical pianists Japanese women pianists Women classical pianists Japanese expatriates in France 1972 births People from Osaka Conservatoire de Paris alumni Living people 21st-century Japanese pianists 21st-century Japanese women musicians 21st-century women pianists