Mako Okamoto was born in Osaka, Japan.
Education at Toho-Gakuen High School in Tokyo.
Studied at the music academies in Cologne and Freiburg
Professor at Osaka-kyoiku university
Lives in Osaka
Chamber music partner of Dirk Altmann and the Ludwig Chamber Players
Labels: TACET | LIVE NOTES | SALYCUS
I met the Japanese musician Mako Okamoto in 2014 at a recital and masterclasses in Osaka. Her playing on the debut of Claude Debussy’s Première Rapsodie was elaborate and detailed. I was impressed by both the lightness and the color range of her piano play. In the aftermath, we played concerts in Okinawa and again 2016 in Osaka and Tokyo. Also in 2016 the CD „Hommage à PARIS“ was produced. Mako Okamoto has been a professor at Osaka-kyoiku University since 2015. The pianist received a special award at the international Olivier Messiaen Competition in Paris (2007). It is not surprising that Makos recording of the epochal piano cycle of O. Messiaen „Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus“ (2014), rewarded international attention.
The pianist Mako Okamoto was born in Osaka (Japan). She began her studies at the Toho-Gakuen Music Highschool in Tokyo, with Prof. Naoyuki Inoue and Prof. Keiko Takeuchi. In 1996 she continued her studies with Prof. Michel Beroff at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg (Germany), where after one year she changed to the master class of Prof. Felix Gottlieb. After graduating with honors, she went to the Cologne Musikhochschule in 2000 in the class of Prof. Pavel Gililov. In 2004 she took her concert exam, also with distinction, and moved back to her home country. Since 2005 she has been teaching at Kyoto University and in April 2015 she accepted an appointment as professor at Osaka-kyoiku University.
Mako Okamoto is 1st prize winner of the International Piano Competition Epinal 1999, where she also received a prize for the best interpretation of French music. She won a 1st prize at the Chopin Competition Cologne (2001). Further awards followed at the International Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris (2001). In 2003 she was a finalist at the Concour Reine Elisabeth in Brussel. A prize at the International Olivier Messiaen Competition in Paris (2007) was of special significance for the young pianist. Here, too, she was awarded the prize for outstanding interpretation of Olivier Messiaen’s music.
Mako Okamoto gives concerts in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland, the USA and Switzerland. These include concerts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonie de Lorainne, L’Ensemble intercontemporain, Orchestre National de Belgique, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. She has collaborated with Pierre Boulez, Girbert Varga, Carlos Kalmar and Tomomi Nishimoto. In 2005, her debut CD was released with the 12 Etudes by Claude Debussy, recorded in Bremen (Salycus). Another CD entitled Visionary Pianism followed in 2007 (Arshe music Studio). In her current new recording she dedicates herself again to Oliver Messiaen and his Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (LIVENOTES Nami Records).
