Biography
“the melodic line floating wonderfully”
(Lippesche Landes-Zeitung)
“she impressed by an incredible wealth of pianistic subtleties”
(Westfalenpost)
Tokyo-born pianist Rinko Hama is a musician well accomplished in several spheres of music. She has performed as a solo artist, as a soloist with orchestra and as a chamber musician internationally, including many notable music festivals, such as the Schwetzinger Festspiele and the Moselfestwochen.
Having received her musical education at the renowned University of the Arts in Tokyo as well as with Sontraud Speidel and Anatol Ugorski in Germany, she has won numerous prizes and awards in national and international competitions, for example the International Piano Competition in Epinal (France) and the International Piano Competition in Porto (Portugal). In 2002 she received 1st Prize at the International Swedish Duo Competition in Katrineholm (Sweden), with cellist Grigory Alumyan, with whom she has formed a highly successful duo since, a first CD with music by Bach, Franck and Britten was released in 2006. She received honorary scholarships from the Japanese Ministry of Culture and the Chopin Society Hannover.
In 2005 she founded the Beethoven Trio Bonn with the Concertmaster and Solo Cellist of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Mikhail Ovrutsky und Grigory Alumyan. The ensemble regularly performs in distinguished venues in Germany and abroad and in 2007 their first CD with works by Beethoven and Mendelssohn was released on the Bella Musica label.
The orchestras with whom Rinko Hama has performed include the North West German Philharmonic, the Wuerttemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen, the Craiova Philharmonic and the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig.
As a soloist, her wide repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary music, having been well-documented on numerous CD, radio and television recordings. Her interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations received particular mention by the critics. Rinko Hama’s acclaimed new CD featuring piano works by Ravel was released in 2009 on Antes Edition.
