Biography

…an outstanding pianist, Kanae Matsumoto. Ms. Matsumoto’s playing was unfailingly crisp, warm, and sensitive throughout the fiendishly difficult piano parts…

Pianist Kanae Matsumoto is active as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been invited to perform recitals in such music festivals as the Third International Conservatoire Week (St. Petersburg, Russia), the Aichi World Expo (Nagoya, Japan), and many concert series in the Southern California area including Epiphany Music Guild, Hi-Desert Concert Series, the Classical Encounters, and Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Highlights of her collaborative activities of the recent years include a performance of Beethoven’s complete Violin Sonatas in Toronto and at the Chautauqua Music Festival in New York with the distinguished violinist Jacques Israelievitch. Her performance was described as “unfailingly crisp, warm, and sensitive throughout the fiendishly difficult piano parts…” (showtimemagazine.ca). Israelievitch-Matsumoto Duo has recently recorded French Violin Sonatas by C. Debussy, M. Ravel, F. Poulenc and G. Pierné, which will be released by Fleur de Son in 2012.

Born in Japan, Ms. Matsumoto started her music education at the age of 5. As a teenager, she won several nationally regarded piano competitions. After completing the Master’s program in piano performance at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music with a Distinction Honor, she moved to the United States to continue her piano studies with worldly renowned Russian pianist and pedagogue, Vitaly Margulis. Under his guidance, she earned her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. During her study at UCLA, she received a number of scholarships and awards. She is currently teaching collaborative piano at the UCLA Music Department. During the summer she serves as a faculty collaborative pianist at the Chautauqua Institution Music Festival in New York.