Ikuyo NAKAMICHI won the first prize and the Masuzawa Prize at the 51st Annual Japan Music Competition in her freshman year at Toho Gakuen School of Music. After taking numerous prizes in Japan and abroad, she began her performing activity in Europe and Japan in 1987. With a broad repertory ranging from Classical to Romantic, NAKAMICHI has performed as a soloist with Japan’s leading orchestras as well as many European and American orchestras. She is recognized as one of the leading Japanese pianists in terms of both popularity and ability. She has performed as a soloist with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste; the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk, and the Philharmonia Orchestra, all under Lorin Maazel; the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra under Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi; the English Chamber Orchestra under Pinchas Zukerman; the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos; and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi?earning high critical acclaim. In 1999, NAKAMICHI gave her debut recital performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 2001 she made her concerto debuts in St. Petersburg and at the Berlin Philharmonie. Highlights of 2016/2017 season include the tour with Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the tour with Gewandhaus Quartett and recital tour to celebrate 30th anniversary of her debut. NAKAMICHI has an exclusive recording contract with Sony Music Japan International and has released many CDs. She appears frequently on TV and radio, and contributes to newspapers and magazines. By conveying the joy of music in rich and varied ways, she has gained a large following among the public. （April 2016）