Tune in: Piano sensation Nobu performs live from Paris via medici.tv, April 17
On April 17, at 6:30 a.m. EST, medici.tv will stream live a solo concert by Japanese piano sensation Nobuyuki “Nobu” Tsujii, who will be making his Paris recital debut at the Louvre Auditorium. Nobu – who tied for the gold medal at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Competition – will perform works by Chopin, Liszt, Gounod and Wagner, including the latter’s “Death of Isolde” from Tristan und Isolde. The 25-year-old pianist, despite being blind from birth, has miraculously learned such monumental scores as Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata and Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto by ear. Nobu was featured prominently in Peter Rosen’s documentary Surprise in Texas about the 2009 Van Cliburn competition, available as video-on-demand at medici.tv. Watch a clip from the film here. In the documentary, eminent pianist and Van Cliburn juror Menahem Pressler says: “I have the utmost admiration for [Nobuyuji Tsujii]. God has taken his eyes, but has given him the physical and mental endowment to encompass the greatest works of piano. … It’s deeply touching. I had to keep from crying when I left the room.” Nobu’s Paris recital debut will be available free on-demand for medici.tv audiences worldwide for 90 days following the live webcast on April 17.
Nobu’s recital program features several works with connections to Paris, including pieces by Chopin and Gounod’s Waltz from his opera Faust. One of the Chopin works is the Nocturne in C-sharp minor, which Nobu calls “a romantic and beautiful piece, one of the most beloved by Chopin around the world. It’s also my grandfather’s favorite piece.” The young pianist isn’t intimidated by a worldwide webcast, saying: “I’ve been used to live broadcasts since I took part in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. It’s very nice that my family and friends can enjoy the concert back in Japan. I can enjoy these, too, when they’re archived.” Although Nobu praises the “brilliant sound” of Liszt’s “technically demanding” work La Campanella on his recital program, he likes to relax to other tones when offstage: “I like to go into nature and listen to sounds from the leaves and rivers, and bird songs.”
Although born blind, Nobu began playing “Do Re Mi” on a toy piano at age 2 after his mother hummed the tune. He began formal study at age 4. Three years later, Nobu won first prize at the All Japan Music of Blind Students competition held by the Tokyo Helen Keller Association. He gave his first piano recital in the small auditorium of Tokyo’s Suntory Hall at age 12. By 2005, the pianist reached the semi-final at the 15th International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, receiving the Critics’ Award. In addition to tying for the Gold Medal at the 13th Van Cliburn Competition, Nobu was awarded the Beverley Taylor Smith Award there for best performance of a new work (John Musto’s Improvisation & Fugue). In 2011, the pianist made his main-stage Carnegie Hall recital debut, and he performed in the BBC Proms last summer with the BBC Philharmonic under Juanjo Mena. Nobu is also a composer, having written music for Japanese film and TV. Japanese figure-skating champion Midori Ito has also performed in international events to his music.
New Nobu documentary
Nobu is the subject of an upcoming Peter Rosen documentary titled Touching the Sound, a six-minute trailer for which can be seen on YouTube. Filmed across the U.S. and in the areas devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan as Nobu performed benefits for the victims, the film details the pianist’s life as a story of hope, redemption and the power of music.
Live from the Louvre
April 17, 2014, 6:30 a.m. EST
Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano
Louvre Auditorium, Paris
Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp minor
Chopin: Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E-flat major
Liszt: “The Fountains of the Villa d’Este” from Years of Pilgrimage
Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3
Liszt: “La Campanella” from Grandes études de Paganini
Wagner: “Death of Isolde” from Tristan und Isolde
Gounod: Waltz from Faust
Link to webcast
New medici.tv app
The latest innovation from medici.tv is a thoroughly updated new app for Android and Apple devices that offers music lovers a free virtual seat at the greatest classical performances and one-of-a-kind events from around the world. The previous edition of the app had already been named one of the top five classical apps by New York’s WQXR, which pointed out that the app “allows you to peek inside great European concert halls.” Part of the medici.tv all-devices strategy, this new, improved app for tablets and smart phones gives users the ability to intuitively navigate through more than 1,300 HD videos, including both performances and documentaries. Available at the Apple App Store and Google Play store, the app gives users access to more than 100 live concert webcasts each year from top classical artists and the finest music institutions across the globe – without ads and in the ideal video quality according to your internet connection. Users can watch a live event and then watch it again whenever and wherever they want. More than 60,000 music lovers have downloaded the medici.tv app since it was first created, enjoying an enriched experience of classical music unrivaled on the web. Read more about medici.tv apps here:
http://www.medici.tv/#/mobile-apps.
About medici.tv
Since its official launch in May 2008, medici.tv has gained international recognition, bringing together a community of 180,000 music and arts lovers from 182 countries – who have watched more than 20 million videos to date. In addition to offering live concert hall events that music lovers can experience on their computers and entertainment systems, medici.tv now offers a free application (available at the Apple App Store and at Google Play for Android) that makes it possible to experience world-class artistry on iPads, iPhones and Android devices. Consumers of Samsung Smart TVs can now access the medici.tv application worldwide in 170 countries on the 2011, 2012 and 2013 models, as well as all future ones. More than 75 client universities around the world take advantage of medici.tv, including Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music.
In addition to webcasts of more than 100 live events each year, medici.tv has partnered with the world’s top artists and music institutions to offer subscriptions that give music lovers the opportunity to watch more than 1,300 video-on-demand programs. They include concerts, operas, recitals, documentaries, master classes, artist portraits and archival material by such legendary musicians as Maria Callas, Glenn Gould, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Arthur Rubinstein, Georg Solti and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Coming events on medici.tv
May 6, 2014, 3:00 p.m. EST
John Adams: Doctor Atomic
Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg, France
May 21, 2014, 3:00 p.m. EST
Violinist Christian Tetzlaff, cellist Tanja Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt play Brahms
Louvre Auditorium, Paris, France
May 28, 2014, 3:00 pm EST
Kent Nagano conducts Bach, Liszt and Saint-Saëns
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Maison symphonique de Montréal, Canada
June 26, 2014, 3:00 p.m. EST
Rossini: La gazzetta
Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège, Belgium
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© 21C Media Group, April 2014