Kenichiro Kojima

As Pianist

He has won a number of national and international competitions. In 2020 Marta Argerich gave Kenichiro Kojima special mentions at the Vigo International Piano Competition in Spain and Ivo Pogorelich gave him the Ivo Pogorelich prize at the 5th Manhattan International Music Competition. He won the GRAND PRIX “CROWN OF STARS” (highest score 100) and the GRAND PRIX “CROWN OF STARS” BEST VIDEO at the Music and Stars Awards for his artist portrait, ,,LEFT HAND’’, which he has published and collaborated with the filmmaker Konrad Buschke. In 2021 he won the 1st prize and the special prize for the best interpretation of contemporary music at the Clavis Piano Festival in Füssen, Germany. In May 2021 he played the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand by Maurice Ravel with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra under Kazuyoshi Akiyama at the Spring Green Music Festival in Kanazawa and received great critical acclaim for his performance.

He won the 3 prize at the Pianale Piano Academy in 2012 in Fulda, Germany and the 3rd prize at the Elise-Meyer Competition in Hamburg in 2013. He was a semifinalist and the recipient of the audience prize at the Sendai International Music Competition in Japan in 2013.

In 2015 Kenichiro Kojima saw a personal crisis, in which he was diagnosed with focal dystonia and lost the function of his right hand. This enormous challenge not only brought out his determined and dedicated spirit, but also encouraged him to work on repertoires for the left hand alone, some of which he had artfully arranged himself.

Despite a set-back which might have wholly disheartened most pianists, Kenichiro Kojima has remained active and competed with repertoires for the left hand alone successfully in several competitions, earning him the 1st prize at the ICoM Piano Award in 2017 in Hamburg, Germany, the 3rd prize at the Vigo International Piano Competition in 2018 in Spain, the 1st prize with two special prizes at the Livorno International Piano Competition in 2019 in Italy, the silver medal at the Berlin International Music Competition in Germany, and the First Great Award at the 4th Manhattan International Music Competition in the USA, among others.

Kenichiro Kojima’s success at the 4th Manhattan International Music Competition in New York has earned him management with Manhattan Concerts Artists and he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in July 2019. In the same month he also gave a solo recital at the International Music Festival Puplinge Classique, which is to be recorded and broadcasted by the Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS).

He has performed as a guest artist at important festivals and concert venues throughout Europe and Japan, including the Hamburger Klang Werk in Germany, International Music Festival Puplinge Classique and Les Renconters Musicales de Champery in Switzerland, the Laieszhalle (Musikhalle Hamburg) and the Kampnagel in Hamburg, the Gasteig in Munich, the Duke’s Hall of the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, the Kaunas State Philharmonic Hall in Lithuania, the Suntory Hall, the Opera City in Tokyo, and Spring Green Music Festival in Kanazawa, among others.

He has appeared as a soloist with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra under Kazuyoshi Akiyama, the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra under Pascal Verrot, the Seto Philharmonic Orchestra under Kazufumi Yamashita, the Tokyo International Association of Artists Orchestra under Yukio Kusakawa, the Ensemble Volumia Consort, the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Suisse Romande, and the Orchestra Filharmonica Mihail Jara di Bacau under Ovidiu Bala.

After six years of training for his right hand in collaboration with Laurent Boullet (pianist, specialist in music physiology), Kenichiro Kojima has returned to the stage with two hands and perform Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto Op.54 with the Moravian Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic in September 2021 and several piano recitals with a combined program of works for both the left hand alone and two hands.

In the season 2022/23 he will perform his recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York and at Auditorium Gaber in Milano and also Maurice Ravel´s piano concerto for left hand and orchestra with the Schleswig-Holstein Symphony Orchestra under Kimbo Ishii and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart´s Piano Concerto No.24 with the Vienna City Orchestra.

Kenichiro Kojima was born in 1991 in Tokyo and he graduated from a postgraduate course with Eliso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and finished his bachelor’s and master’s degree at the University of Music and Theater Hamburg with Stepan Simonian. In 2015, when he lost the function of his right hand due to focal dystonia, he decided to become a conductor. At the same time, he began his career as a left-hand pianist. Since 2019 he has been studying Orchestral Conducting and Répétition for Music Theater at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Prof. Marc Piollet and Prof. Wolfgang Wengenroth and working as Senior Lecture.

As Conductor

From the 2024/25 season he is appointed 1st Kapellmeister and head coach of the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Landestheater Neustrelitz.

In 2024 Spring he was selected as the assistant conductor to General Music Director Kent Nagano at the Hamburg State Opera. In the same year, he was selected as a finalist in the conducting competition at the Royal Northern College of Music Manchester.

In 2023 he was the Guest Conductor and conducts the new productions of “Don Giovanni” at the Malmö Opera and was invited by artistic director Tetsuro Ban of the Biwako Hall and conducted “Così fan tutte”, performed with their vocal ensemble and the Osaka Symphony Orchestra.

From 2022 to 2023 he was the assistant to music director Roland Kruttig at the Graz Opera.

He conducted Suor Angelica, The Magic Flaute, The Beautiful Galatea and MR.EMMET TAKES A WALK at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. From 2021 to 2023 he was the resident conductor of the wind orchestra Grazer Bläser Vielharmoni.

He is also active in the field of contemporary music and conducted the Hungarian premiere of Unsuk Chin's Fantaisiy Mécanique in Budapest in 2022 with the Danubian Orchestra. In 2023, he participated as a conductor in the production of Peter Eötvös's opera The Golden Dragon with Klangforum Wien at Theater an der Wien. Then, in Graz, he took over the production of Henrik Snade's new opera A Waiting in place of the conductor who was suddenly ill just before the premiere, and performed with the contemporary music ensemble Schallfeld Emsenble. He has conducted the Symphoniker Hamburg , the Graz Philharmonic, the Bruckner Orchester Linz, the Szombathely Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Chamber Philharmonic, and the Moravian Philharmonic.