Rika Miyatani

Born in 1971 in Japan, she started piano lessons at the age of five. In 1983-96 she studied in the Toho Gakuen music school in Japan. From 1993 she studied with Piotr Paleczny, Halina Czerny-Stefanska and Jacques Rouvier. In 1995 she won first prize in a competition in Iizuka (Japan) and fifth prize in the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Following that, she started a series of gala concerts in Taiwan and Japan with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Kazimierz Kord. In 1996 she finished her postgraduate piano studies. Since then she has toured a great deal, performing solo and with orchestras (including the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra and the Warsaw National Philharmonic). She also gives concerts in Europe (Vienna, Warsaw, Paris). She has won many awards for her first public performances (an award from the Japanese Chopin Society for Best Chopin Music Performer in 1996, the Hida-Furukawa Award and the City of Chofu Award). She is regarded as one of the most promising young Japanese players.