Kiai Nara

Kiai Nara won the First Prize and Gold Medal winner of Robert Schumann International Competition in Zwickau, Germany, as well as high prizes from Arthur Schnabel Competition in Germany, Busoni International Piano competition in Italy, Jose Iturbi International Piano Competition in Spain, and Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan.

She started playing piano in Japan, when she was just two years old. Her first public performance was when she was five. She gave her first recital in Japan when she was eleven. And when she was eighteen, she won the first prize at the Japanese national broadcasted music competition.

After graduating from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where she studied with Prof. Yoshie Kohra, Hitoshi Kobayashi as a scholarship student of YASUDA Foundation, she moved to Germany to study with Prof. Klaus Hellwig on the German Academic exchange program (DAAD) scholarship.

After she finished her BA Degree (Hauptstudium) with the highest honor, she continued her Post-graduate Degree (Konzertexamen/National Artistic Diploma) with Prof. Hellwig as a scholarship student of Japanese Cultural Affairs. She also had studied at the Real Conservatorio in Madrid, with Prof. Joaquin Soriano, and also had studied with Prof. Sergio Perticaroli in Rome. In 2004, as a recipient of the Rohm Music Foundation award, she did her Professional Studies program on a full scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Besides solo performance, she also studied song accompanying with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann, Wolfram Rieger, Dalton Baldwin, Hans-Peter Blochwitz, and Thomas Quasthoff. She studied at master courses with György Sebök, Christian Zacharias, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Arie Vardi.

As a soloist, chamber-musician, song accompanist, and with orchestras, and for the contemporary pieces, Kiai has performed at the Berliner Philharmonic Hall,  Wigmore Hall in London, where she got highest acclaims from the several newspapers, incl. the most famous British newspaper “Independent”.
Kiai has performed at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Philippine, throughout Europe, USA and Canada. She gives concerts regularly with the members from Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Radio Symphoniy Orchestra Berlin, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, Komische-Oper Orchestra. She is also a member of the Usedom Chamber music festival in Germany.

In 2023, Kiai has performed for the world premiere of the piece by Fridrich Georg Haas for the Busoni Festival Bolzano, Italy.

Currently, Kiai is teaching as a Professor at KUNITACHI College of Music in Tokyo and SOAI University in Osaka.

She’s been invited as a guest professor from several universities like as Manhattan School of Music (NYC), HAMAMATSU international piano academy, Singapore National University, GIMHAE International Music Festival Piano academy at Inje University in South Korea, Jilin University in China, in Europe, USA., Korea, and Taiwan. She has been also invited as a jury of international competitions.

Recently, Kiai has been invited by several master courses as a faculty member of piano solo and chamber music. She also writes articles for the music magazines and books. She is a member of the Robert Schumann international Society-Zwickau Germany, German Mendelssohn Society, and Japan Alban Berg Society.