Midori Nohara began taking piano lessons at an early age and after graduating at the top of her class from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music she went on to study at the Ecole Normale in Paris.
Ms Nohara is the laureate of numerous competitions, beginning with her 1st prize in the elementary student category of 1979 All-Japan Students' Music Competition she was awarded 1st prize in the 1987 Japan Music Competition and a year later appeared with the NHK Symphony orchestra in their prestigious Young Talent concert series, performing Liszt's first piano concerto. Her talents continued to be highly evaluated and since winning 3rd place and the Liszt Etude Award in the 42nd Busoni International Piano Competition (no first place awarded), 2nd prize in the Budapest Liszt International Competition and the 1st prize in France's prestigious Long-Thibaud International Competition in 1991, Ms. Nohara has been at the forefront of media attention within the classical music world.
Midori Nohara gives concert performances throughout Europe as well as in her native Japan. She is much in demand as a soloist and has collaborated with such world-class conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Michel Plasson and Sergiu Comissiona. As well as all the major Japanese orchestras - NHK, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony orchestra etc - she is invited to perform with European orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Philharmonische Virtuosen Berlin and the Dresden Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Nohara is active not only as a concerto soloist, but also in her chamber music and solo recital work. A committed advocate of French music, recent highlights include her performance of the complete solo piano works of Maurice Ravel over two evenings and great acclaim for her participation in concerts centered around Messian's Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps.
She has recorded several CDs: the first dedicated to the music of Rachmaninov, and her most recent recordings, released in 2003 and 2004, two CDs featuring the complete piano works of Ravel and is often invited to appear on NHK Television's popular television series Classic Album and Saturday Recital.
Nohara is an extremely gifted pianist. She is blessed with great technical skills and virtuoso prowess; her interpretation abilities, meanwhile, are admirable and oftentimes quite exceptional. ...Her performance style is completely riveting. --- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Saturday, April 19, 1995 (Of Midori Nohara's performance with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra).
