Toy Piano

NEWS

Toy Piano Project - coming soon! ©Anja Thölking

Die Pianistin Rei Nakamura findet internationale Beachtung als Interpretin zeitgenössischer Musik. Sie engagiert sich insbesondere für ein experimentelles und spartenübergreifendes Repertoire. 2007 startete sie das Projekt Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement für Klavier und Multimedia: In intensiver Zusammenarbeit mit Komponist*innen werden multimediale Werkkonzepte erprobt und weltweit aufgeführt.

Im Rahmen ihrer Konzerttätigkeit spielte sie u. a. als Solistin mit dem SWR Symphonieorchester, WDR-Sinfonieorchester und Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin sowie auf zahlreichen Festivals wie Eclat Festival, Festival Acht Brücken, Ultraschall Berlin, Warsaw Autumn (Polen), Sound of Stockholm (Schweden), Klang Festival (Dänemark) und Monday Evening Concerts (USA). 

Sie ist Pianistin im Ensemble Experimental des SWR-Experimentalstudios Freiburg und ist darüber hinaus immer wieder auch in anderen kammermusikalischen Formationen tätig. Mit dem Klangkünstler Peter Vogel hatte sie von 2003-2012 das Improvisationsduo für Live-Elektronik und präpariertes Klavier.

I am a pianist and performer —live on stage, with an audience—is at the heart of what I do and who I am. Lately, I have been working intensively as soloist with orchestras such as Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, RAI National Radio Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra and RSO Berlin with conductors as Brad Lubman, Robert Treviño, Yaroslav Shemet, Arash Yasdani, Michael Wendeberg and Bas Wiegers. Those includes premieres of piano concertos by Malin Bång, Christian Winther Christensen and Simon Steen-Andersen. 

My on-going project since 2007, Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement, combines piano with multimedia, electronics, and video. Music is also a visual art: my visual perception influences the sounds I produce, just as what an audience hears is affected by what they see in performance. Through this project,,,

 

PROJECTS

Piano Concertos

Premiering piano concertos have become an important part of my artistic activities. I have premiered Piano Concertos by composers Malin Bång, Wojtek Blecharz, Christian Winther Christensen and Simon Steen-Andersen. Working with the SWR Symphonieorchester, WDR sinfonieorchester and RSO Berlin and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice with the conductors Brad Lubman, Yaroslav Shemet, Michael Wendeberg, Bas Wiegers and Arash Yasdani have been an incredible experience.

 

John Cage/Etude Australes

Due to the pandemic, the Festival Achtbrücken 2020 was held as an online concert. I transformed my solo concert into a collaboration with the Freiburg Planetarium and SWR Experimentalstudio for recording purposes. The live conference and post-concert discussion took place via a live online portal at Depot K in Freiburg, documented by the photograher Anja Thölking. A documentary comic and a report of this project was published in MusikTexte 166 under the title “Kommunikation in Quarantäne” (Communication in Quarantine).

The Five Senses

The Five Senses is the new program of the project "Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement" for piano,  electronics, movement and video since 2007. My intention is to create and seek for an entirely new type of performance, both visually and aurally examining the interrelation of movement and sound. I encourage collaborations between composers and artists in order to achieve a diversity of repertoire.

Lecture Performance

Sara Glojnaric/Latitudes

Simon Steen-Andersen/no Concerto (2024)

James Layton/having never known the piano

Jan Martin Smørdal - Solfeggio (2025)

Luc Ferrari/u.s.w...

Martin Tideman Kvalø/Tema

Torbjørn Haaland/Kinetic Transfer (2025)

Siri Eide/blending, melding

Sarah Nemtsov/Seven Thoughts

Kreutzer by Vinyl Terror and Horror

Fernando Manassero/Cortex

Michael Beil/Mach Sieben

Henrik Hellstenius/The Murmur of the World

Stefan Prins/Piano Hero#1

Bach ohne Grenze

Gallery

09.09.24 20:00

Simon Steen-Andersen - no Concerto (2024) Italian premiere

Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai

Robert Treviño, conductor

MITO Festival Turin

20.09.24 19:30

Christian Winther Christensen - Piano Concerto (2018) Polish premiere

Nactional Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice

Yaroshlav Shemet, conductor

Warsaw Autumn

27.09.24 19:30

Wojtek Blecharz - Concerto for piano and wireless speakers (2023)

Warsaw Autumn

 

21.10.24 19:30

Lecture Performance - Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement

A talk about works composed for piano, electronics and video.

Powerpoint slide show and live performances of selected pieces.

HfM Detmold

 

07.11.24 19:00

Georg Friedrich Haas - Piano Concerto

Moravian philharmonics orchestra

Arash Yazdani, conductor

Music Olomouc - Festival of contemporary Music in Olomouc

19.11.24 18:00

Lecture Performance - Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement

A talk about works composed for piano, electronics and video.

Powerpoint slide show and live performances of selected pieces.

Norwegian Academy, Oslo

21.01.25 19:00

Lecture Performance - Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement

A talk about works composed for piano, electronics and video.

Powerpoint slide show and live performances of selected pieces.

Work in collaboration with Andreas E. Frank - Punch

Music Academy, Basel

03.02.25 19:30

Movement to Sound x Earquake

collaboration with the composition class Prof. Mark Barden, Earquake Merve Kazokoglu and Sascha Etezazi (HfM Detmold)

14.03.25 22:05

Radiosendung

Deutschlandfunk - Atelier neuer Musik (bis 14.03.2025 online abrufbar)

In multimedialen Erlebnisräumen
Die japanisch-brasilianische Pianistin Rei Nakamura
Von Egbert Hiller

Experimente und neue Horizonte bilden den Kern ihrer künstlerischen Identität. In ihrem bahnbrechenden Projekt „Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement“ arbeitet Rei Nakamura an den Schnittstellen von Klavierklang und Multimedia. Die Musikerin wurde in Japan geboren, ist in Brasilien aufgewachsen und lebt seit vielen Jahren in Deutschland. Als Solistin ist sie besonders dann gefragt, wenn es gilt, extreme pianistische Anforderungen zu erfüllen. Es fasziniert sie, die Grenzen des Spielbaren auszuloten und zu verschieben. Rei Nakamura beschäftigt sich auch immer wieder mit ihrer Rolle als Interpretin in der zeitgenössischen Musik – sie reflektiert, wie sich diese Rolle im Zeitalter von Elektronik und Neuen Medien verändert. 

31.03.25 18:00

Collaboration with the composition class Prof. Henrik Hellstenius - premiere by James Layton, Siri Sofie Eide, Martin Tiedemann Kvalø, Torbjørn Haaland with pieces by Georges Aperghis and Ulyana Saulina.

24.05.25 19:00

New series "The 5 Senses" of Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement with premiere by Jeppe Ernst, Jan Martin Smørdal and Henrik Hellstenius with the pieces by Sarah Nemtsov and Sara Glojnaric.

29.11.25 19:00

Dans le mur

Werke von Georges Aperghis, Ulyana Saulina, Christian Winther Christensen (WP)

Depot K, Freiburg

16.12.25 17:45

Lecture Performance

Guest Lecturer in Hochschule der Künste Bern

Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement - introducing multimedia piano compositions.

06.01.26 15:30

Lecture Performance

Guest Lecturer in Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg

Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement - introducing multimedia piano compositions.

14.04.26 21:00

Leeds Song Festival 2026

Dunwich is a theatrical intermedia piece about landscape, memory, haunting, and loss. It is an opera without songs and without singers. It is a collaboration between Martin Iddon (composer), Adam York Gregory (videographer), Gillian Jane Lees (speaker/performer), and Rei Nakamura (pianist). World Premiere

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