Chiharu TAKI | Violin
Emi MUNAKATA | Piano

Works by Beethoven, Schnittke and Franck

Admission: 10€/7€/6€

Children and young people free!

About Chiharu Taki

Born 1987 in Tokyo.
In 2002, at the age of 15, she was chosen to perform as a soloist with the Toho Gakuen Alumni Orchestra under the baton of Seiji Ozawa at the Toho Gakuen Music Department 50th Anniversary Concert. In 2004, just 16 years old, she released a solo debut CD using a violin made by Chang Heryern Jin, a well-know violin maker in Japan.

While a high school student, she performed with major Japanese orchestras conducted by Ken-ichiro Kobayashi, Norichika Iimori, Taijiro Iimori, Masahiko Enkoji, Naoto Otomo, Kazuhiro Koizumi, Ryusuke Numajiri, Kazumasa Watanabe, Shizuo Kuwahara, Gerd Albrecht, Hubert Soudant, Michal Dworzynski, Byron Fidetzis, and Claus Peter Flor.

In August 2008, she gave a debut recital with Kazune Shimizu displaying her outstanding technique and musicality.
She appeared on several TV programs, one of which includes Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole.” This was broadcast in 2009 on NHK’s program “Forest of Orchestras.” During such she performed with Yamagata Symphony Orchestra and Norichika Iimori.

In 2011, Taki performed with Shota Nakano at Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo. Additionally in 2013, they performed a duo recital at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall and toured Berlin and Rostock in 2015.

Taki continued superb musical activities in Europe. In 2002, she gave a recital in Pitea, Sweden and in 2004 in Novosibirsk, Russia. In 2008, she performed Sibelius violin concerto with Athens Symphony Orchestra conducted by L. Svarovsky in Greece and also Brahms violin concerto with Niderbayerish Symphony Orchestra in Passau, Germany.

She played with Haruko Ueda at Salle Gaveau in Paris in 2010 and formed the piano trio ”Gachini” in 2011. In 2012, she received an award in the Jeunesses Musicales Suisse competition and appeared on Radio Swiss Classic.
Around the same time, she was invited to be a concertmistress of the Animato Sriftung Orchestra. A most promising student in Switzerland, Taki went on an European tour including Bratislava, Graz, Bern, Berlin, Prague and Wien. In 2014 and 2015, she was invited to the Davos Festival as Davos Camerata’s concertmistress.

In November 2015, she performed Bruch violin concerto at the Berliner Philharmonie under the baton Seitaro Ishikawa. In February 2016, she performed a solo concert with Jazz Drummer Ernst Bier at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnischkirche, one of the most popular churches in Berlin.

Her fantastic talent and elegance have been recognized worldwide and since 2015 she has worked as a Pictet patronage artist of Pictet Asset Management (Japan) Ltd.
She actively addresses a variety of music performance which exemplify her personality and individuality.

Chiharu Taki has studied with Reiko Kaminishi, Akiko Tatsumi, and Zakhar Bron. After studying at Toho Gakuen Music High School and Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, she presently studies with Saschko Gawriloff at Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin.

About Emi Munakata

Emi Munakata was born in Tokyo (Japan). At the age of 6 she won her first pianist competition. This was followed by many other prizes and awards. In her home country, she won all seven major national piano competitions.

In 2007 she moved to Germany and studied music at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin with Prof. Fabio Bidini, graduating with a diploma. Afterwards she graduated from the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with the concert examinations and graduated as a soloist with Prof. Einar Steen-Nökleberg.

In addition to her studies, she worked as a répétiteur at the UdK Berlin and HMTM Hannover, where she trained her remarkable skills as a chamber musician. In 2013 she began a Master's degree at the HfM Berlin in song design for pianists with Prof. Wofram Rieger.  One year later she won the Justus-Hermann-Wetzel-Competition in the category song duo.

In the field of chamber music she is highly esteemed, among others by the renowned Greek violin virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos, who said about her:

... their flexible technique and dynamic musicality lead to a wonderful expression. She has all the potential to become a very interesting artist."

One of the world's best horn players from Croatia, Radovan Vlatkovich, was also full of praise:

"... When I heard Emi play, I saw for the first time the whole palette of colors a piano has to offer."

Emi has it all,"said the world-famous Japanese violist Prof. Nobuko Imai.

Dmitry Bashkirov, a famous Russian piano professor, found great words for Emi:

"She is not only an excellent pianist, but also willing to set a mark in history."

As a solo pianist, she gained attention above all with the music of romantic composers such as Liszt, Chopin and Schumann. At the Grieg Piano Competition in Oslo, for example, she received a special prize for the best interpretation of Franz Liszt's B flat minor sonata and was remarkably successful at the Liszt Competition in Weimar/Bayreuth with her participation in the semi-finals (the best six).

She is a much sought-after artist and is engaged in numerous concerts and festivals in Germany and other countries in Europe and Asia.