Biorgraphy of Shiori Kuwahara

Shiori Kuwahara is a Japanese pianist studying in Germany.

Recent years, she has been active internationally. She won the 2nd prize at the 62nd Maria Canals Barcelona International Music Competition with youngest finalist prize (Spain, 2016). In the next year she won the 2nd prize and special prize at the 68th Gian Battista Viotti International Music Competition (Vercelli, Italy, 2017). She won the 2nd prize at the Ferruccio Busoni international piano competition in Bolzano, Italy in 2019, also winning the prize for the best interpretation of a piece by Busoni.

In 2021, Shiori won the second prize at the 16th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv, Israel, receiving two additional prizes at the same time.

She continues to become laureate in the prestigious international competitions and to attract international attention.

Shiori Kuwahara was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1995. She began to study the piano at the age of four. In her teens, she became laureate of all three major domestic competitions in which finalists perform with professional orchestra. When she was a student of Tokyo University of the Arts, she won the 2nd prize and audience award of the 83rd Music Competition of Japan in 2014.

She won various piano competitions when she was in Music High School attached to Tokyo University of the Arts. She won the silver medal and audience award at the 37th PTNA Piano Competition Grade Superior, she received the 2nd prize of the 10th Tokyo Music Competition, and she won the 1st prize and audience award at the 9th Romanian International Music Competition in Japan.

Shiori is invited to many recitals in various countries. In Prague, she performed as a soloist of Beethoven Triple Concerto at the Rudolfinum Dvorak Hall and also at Polish Embassy in Prague. She performed the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 at Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu, USA. She performs in other countries such as in Austria (Franz Liszt Hall in the University for Music in Vienna), in Germany (Bottrop), in Italy, in Korea and so on. 

Shiori also appears as a soloist of the orchestras in Japan；Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Geidai Philharmonia and so on. The performances are done under prominent conductors; Alexander Lazarev, Ken Takaseki, Masahiko Enkoji, Naohiro Totsuka, Norichika Iimori, Takeshi Ooi, Toshiaki Umeda, Chikara Iwamura and Kazumasa Watanabe. She performed Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2, No.3, Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3, No.5, Beethoven Triple Concerto, Liszt Piano Concerto No.2, Mozart Piano Concerto No.24, and Bartok Piano Concerto No.3. These concerts were held in various major Hall in Japan; Suginami Public Hall (Tokyo), Ota Aprico Hall (Tokyo), Setagaya Public Hall (Tokyo), Fuchu no Mori Art Theater Dream Hall (Tokyo), Parthenon Tama (Tokyo), Kissei Bunka Hall (Nagano), and so on.

As for her recital activities in Japan, since performing recital at the Kioi Hall in Tokyo, “Kioi Up & Coming Artists” in 2017 and making a full-fledged debut, she has been performing recitals across the country such as Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall (Tokyo), Suginami Public Hall (Tokyo), KAWAI Omotesando (Tokyo), and Munetsugu Hall (Nagoya). She was invited to the Young Prague international music festival to perform in Prague and in Tokyo. Especially, on the occasion of Young Prague concert held at the Czech embassy in Tokyo, she played the piano under the presence of Her Majesty the Empress Michiko (now Empress Emerita). 

Her recital activities are often introduced by various media including Japanese major newspaper website, classical music information websites and so on. Her powerful technique and delicate expression are highly evaluated by them.

Her performances of Prokofiev's work are distributed from Warner Music Japan’s “Geidai Label”, and she is also active in broadcasting such as appearing on NHK FM Recital Nova programs for around one hour in June 2018. She also appears in Japanese TV programs such as NHK and BS TV Tokyo.

Shiori participated in many international piano academy; Fellbach music academy summer piano master class (August 2016), Mozarteum Salzburg international summer Academy (August 2015), European academy for music and performing arts in Montepulutiano (August 2015), Munich international music academy (February 2015), MusicAlp International Academy of music in Tignes (August 2014), Courchevel international music academy in Kasama (March 2013), Hamamatsu international piano academy (March 2013), Russian piano school in Tokyo (August 2012, August 2013).

She graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with the highest award, studying under Prof. Kei Itoh. Shiori received Norio Ohga award, Ataka award, Ikuo Hirayama culture and the art award, Mitsubishi Estate award and so on. Currently she studies under Prof. Klaus Hellwig at Soloist master of Berlin University of the Arts. She has received scholarships of YAMAHA Music Foundation, Munetsugu Tokuji Fund, Aoyama Music Foundation, Fukuda Yasuko Fund and so on. She is a scholarship student of the 44th Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation.