Evermay Concert Series

BIOGRAPHY

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Yu Kosuge

Piano

Appointed Visiting Producer

With her superlative technique, sensitivity of touch, and profound understanding of the music she plays, Yu Kosuge has become one of the world’s most noted pianists of her generation. Yu has been giving recitals and performing with orchestras since early childhood; at the age of nine she made her debut with the Tokyo New City Orchestra. In 1993, she moved to Europe to continue her studies in Hannover and Salzburg and received great support and inspiration from András Schiff.

Yu Kosuge has appeared at leading venues in Berlin, Hamburg, Köln, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Washington and New York. Her Carnegie Hall debut recital met with outstanding success with critics praising her “acutely poetic sensibility…wit, drama, and effulgent lyricism”. She has been invited to festivals across Europe including Salzburger Festspiele, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Passau, Braunschweig, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Holland Music Festival, Piano Festival Lille, La Roque d’Anthéron Piano Festival and La Folle Journée de Nantes. She also enjoys chamber music and has performed with members of the Berlin Philharmonic.

As well as regular performances in Asia and with all the major Japanese orchestras, Yu Kosuge has worked with many of the leading European orchestras including the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Berliner Sinfonie Orchester, Radio-Sinfonie Orchester Frankfurt, Camerata Salzburg, St Petersburg Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Radio Symphony Orchestra Finland, BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with conductors of the stature of Seiji Ozawa, Jun Märkl, Philippe Herreweghe, Gerd Albrecht, Lawrence Foster, Sakari Oramo, Christian Arming, Yutaka Sado, Mark Wigglesworth, Osmo Vänskä, Vasili Petrenko and Dennis Russell Davies.

Highlights this season include her debut with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and a return to Polska Filharmonia Bałtycka where she performs Dai Fujikura’s 3rd Piano Concert ‘Impulse’ and Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

In September 2009 Sony released Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No 1 with the Mito Chamber Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa with a selection from Songs Without Words. Yu Kosuge’s other recordings on Sony include Liszt’s 12 Études d´exécution transcendante, Chopin’s Préludes and Nocturne, and Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos 20 and 22. Over the last few years, Yu Kosuge has been recording Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas which she has recently completed. The box set was released in the autumn of 2016. In the autumn of 2018 Orchid Classics released the first of four CDs, ‘Water,’ as part of her ‘Four Elements’ cycle. This season sees the release of the second volume ‘Fire’ whilst performing the third volume ‘Wind’ in recitals throughout the season.

In March 2017 Yu Kosuge won the Suntory Music Award, presented to individuals or organizations who have made an outstanding contribution to the development of Western music in Japan.

Yu Kosuge lives in Berlin.