BTHVN2020 | Detmold: Detmold Master Concert

Nobuko Imai studied viola at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, Yale University and the Julliard School, and has won the highest prizes at international viola competitions in Munich and Genoa. She was a member of the Vermeer Quartet and has performed together with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw and the London and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Her chamber music partners have included Gidon Kremer, Midori, Isaac Stern, Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich.

In 2003, she founded the Michelangelo String Quartet, with which she quickly gained international recognition and which is now one of the most renowned quartets in the world. In Japan, she often performs as a soloist, particularly at the annual Viola Space Project. She has been the Artistic Director at three Hindemith Festivals: at Wigmore Hall in London, Columbia University in New York and Casals Hall in Tokyo. It was also at Casals Hall in Tokyo that she founded the international Tokyo Viola Competition in 2009. Her oeuvre is documented in over 40 CDs.

Nobuko Imai has taught at the Detmold University of Music (Hochschule für Musik Detmold)  (1983-2003) and the Niccolò Paganini Conservatory in Genoa (Conservatorio Nicolò Paganinidi Genova)(2003-2014). She currently teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (Conservatorium van Amsterdam), the Kronberg International Academy, the Queen Sofia College of Music in Madrid and the Ueno Gakuen University in Tokyo.

Nobuko Imai will be accompanied by the pianist François Killian at the Detmold Master Concert.

Photo: © Fumiaki Fujimoto