Tokutaka Kawata

Pianist Toku Kawata has appeared as solo, chamber, and concert performer throughout the U.S. and Japan. As first-prize winner of the 2014 Shining Stars International Concerto Competition, he performed Beethoven 4th Piano Concerto with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta. The performance was acclaimed for “a brisk and vivacious account, distinguished by its clearly articulated keyboard figurations.” He also won first prize in the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition and was a prize winner in the Jefferson City Concerto Competition, Beethoven Club Young Artist Competition, and University of Central Arkansas Solo Piano Competition. In 2010, he made solo debuts at Carnegie Hall, Harris Hall, and other venues.

Currently Toku is attending the University of Colorado Boulder as a doctoral candidate in piano performance with a teaching assistantship under the guidance of Dr. Andrew Cooperstock. He holds degrees from the University of North Texas and University of Central Arkansas, studying with Neil Rutman and Steven Harlos. After graduating from UNT, Toku moved to Boston, and taught music at Lynn Public Schools while studying with Steven Drury at the New England Conservatory. Toku has performed in master classes of John O’Conor, Claude Frank, Vladimir Viardo, Aiko Onishi, Frank Heneghan, Jeremy Denk, Jonathan Biss and others. He is 2014 scholarship winner of the Mu Phi Epsilon Delta Rho Chapter. Toku has spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School, studying piano with Ann Schein and chamber music with Sylvia Rosenberg. In 2014, he was the recipient of Aspen’s prestigious Louis & Harold Price Foundation Fellowship.