ABOUT
“..Her sound filled the hall as one huge
warm blanket…”
-Linda Shine, Music of life magazin
“..purity of sounds-breathtaking…”
"Shichijo gave it a tour-de-force performance, rife with brilliance and unassailable authority."
-Performing Art Monterey Bay
" Her approach and interpretation were remarkable: the well-grounded, forceful rendering of the rhythmical side of the music, as well as the thrilling dynamics with retarding and release, contrasts, tensions and voicing of lower and higher components. All these elements strongly fostered the movements of the highly engaged six (!) dancers Michelle Cheung, Julie Pécard, Jonas Frey, Evandro Pedroni, Joseph Simon and Nora Vladiguerov, their curving, turning, struggling, surrender and acceptance in permanent spontaneous reconfiguring. The tension interplay of earthiness and celestial ether run through both, musical sounds and spontaneously emerging and orchestrated movements. It was a remarkable, enthralling and mind-expanding experience, a meaningful multidisciplinary enterprise, a fruitful meeting at crossroads. It could raise awareness for cultural traits and variants of minimal music, for the power and shaping of what we call 'repetition.' " -in All about Jazz by Hennning Bolte
Pianist & fortepianist Keiko Shichijo is a special voice in both the Classical and new music worlds. Her traditional Japanese sensibilities combined with her knowledge of European historical performance practices shape her unique vision, and this is reflected in her feeling for the music, the instruments and the story behind them.
Hailing from Japan and residing in the Netherlands for more than a decade, she is active around the world playing both solo and chamber music. She is a prizewinner in many international competitions, including twice the International Early Music Competition (solo and duo) in Brugge, Belgium, the International Early Music Competition "A Tre" in Trossingen in Germany and the Minkoff Prize from the music publisher, Edition Minkoff, and has performed in many international festivals such as the festivals Printemps Des Arts (France), Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival (Holland), MA Festival (Belgium), La Folle Journée Tokyo (Japan). In 2012, the Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments in Japan released her first fortepiano solo CD of works by Schubert.
Her second solo CD “6 Dances by Komitas Vardapet”, released in 2016, earned unanimous praise in the international press and was featured on the national Dutch TV program Vrije Geluiden.
Keiko Shichijo has a violin/fortepiano duo with renowned violinist Cecilia Bernardini which performs regularly throughout Europe.
As a specialist in contemporary music Keiko has worked with many composers, including Helmut Lachenmann, Tom Johnson, Johannes Kalitzke, Jürg Frey, Roscoe Mitchell en Bernhard Lang.
She is a piano and fortepiano professor at the Fontys Academy for Music and Performing Arts Tilburg in the Netherlands, a piano professor at KASK & Conservatorium School of Arts Gent in Belgium.
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