Maki Namekawa, one of the leading pianists of her generation, has earned a unique reputation for her commitment to four centuries of great piano music with a concert repertory that is broad, colorful, and ambitious, ranging from neglected masterpieces by J.S. Bach, Mendelssohn, Berg, and Guarnieri to new works by many of today’s leading composers.
She has worked closely with many composers on the interpretation of their works, such as with Peter Eötvös, György Kurtág, Misato Mochizuki, Gerhard Stäbler, Evan Zyporyn. The impressive list of music especially written for her includes Sonatas by Philip Glass and Joe Hisaishi, headlining a list of first performances of music by Elliot Goldenthal, Keith Jarrett, Arvo Pärt, Heinz Winbeck.
Maki Namekawa’s prize-winning recordings include „Sunrise Falling“ featuring the music of Isang Yun, the first complete solo performance of the Glass Etudes, Glass‘ Piano Sonata and the piano suite from „Mishima“ especially crafted for her by Glass specialist Michael Riesman, and Heinz Winbeck’s remarkable homage to Franz Schubert‘ „Lebensstürme“.
She performs regularly as a soloist at international venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center New York, Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles, Davies Symphony Hall San Francisco, Barbican Center London, Musikverein Vienna, Philharmonie de Paris and Cité de la Musique Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Gewandhaus Leipzig and Suntory Hall Tokyo.
In 2025, she will make her solo recital debut at Wigmore Hall in London.
She has performed at the most important festivals of our time: the Salzburg Festival, the New York Lincoln Center Festival, the Ars Electronica Festival, Musik-Biennale Berlin and the Rheingau Music Festival.
Maki Namekawa performs regularly as a soloist with orchestras including the American Composers Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Bochumer Symphoniker, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Dresdner Philharmonie, Filharmonie Brno, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Münchener Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, Seattle Symphony.
Since 2014 she and her husband, conductor Dennis Russell Davies, present “Pianographique” integrating piano duo performances with live, AI and computer-generated images created by Cori O’lan.
Recordings by the Namekawa-Davies Piano-Duo include numerous works by Philip Glass, Alexander Zemlinsky’s four-hand arrangements of “Zauberflöte”, Fidelio”, Haydn’s “Creation” and “The Seasons”, J.S.Bach – transcription by György Kurtag’ „Three Chorales“ and Shostakovitch’s personal arrangements of his own monumental Fourth Symphony and Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms”.
Since her first appearance at the Piano-Festival Ruhr in 2002, where she took part in its closing concert on the recommendation of Pierre-Laurent Aimard, she has been a regular guest at the festival and was awarded the „Piano-Festival Ruhr Prize“ in 2017.
