Mari Kodama, Sophie Harmsen, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande & Kazuki Yamada
Biography Mari Kodama, Sophie Harmsen, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande & Kazuki Yamada
Mari Kodama
has established an international reputation for profound musicality and articulate virtuosity at the keyboard. In performances throughout Europe, the United States and Japan, she plays a broad repertoire in a powerful yet elegant style.
In 2010, Ms. Kodama returnED to the Ensemble Orchestre de Paris for performances of Mozart’s Concerto No. 10 for two pianos, with her sister and frequent musical partner, Momo Kodama. She performs in Germany with the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra and with the Bayerische Staatsoper, and concertizes in TOKYO, BAD KISSINGEN, GERMANY and elsewhere.
Last season Ms. Kodama performed Mozart concertO K.595 with the Montreal Symphony; Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 on tour with the Japan Philharmonic; Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with Lan Shui and the Singapore Symphony; joined the Ensemble Orchestrale de Paris both in Paris and on tour in Spain for Martinu’s Concerto for Two Pianos; and made a return to the Bad Kissengen Klangwerkstatt, curating a chamber series for young musicians. She performed a recital at Spivey Hall in Georgia, returned to the Folles Journés Festival in Tokyo and led Forest Hill Musical Days 2009, the cooperative chamber music festival she founded with her husband, conductor Kent Nagano, in their San Francisco community AND LEAD THE CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES AT THE ORFORD MUSIC FESTIVAL.
Other recent highlights include Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3 with the Osnabrücker Symphonierorchester, Mozart concerti with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Portugal, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Philaharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with David Stahl and the Charleston Symphony, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke, and Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D Major in with Mark Wigglesworth and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Kodama performed the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Jonathan Nott and the Bamberg Symphony, a work she has also performed with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, and on tour in the Netherlands. Mari and Momo Kodama have performed the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos No. 10, at the Festival International de Piano La Roque d'Anthéron, in Japan and throughout the world. Mari Kodama has played with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, the North German Radio Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Berkeley Symphony, and Tokyo's NHK Symphony.
Mari Kodama has presented exceptionally well-received complete Beethoven sonata cycles in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Nagoya, and has appeared in recital in New York, Paris, in Spain and Germany, and much of the U.S. In February 2008 she performed a special program in Vienna celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Schoenberg Center. An active chamber musician, Ms. Kodama’s collaborative work spans her Forest Hill Musical Days festival, which brings together friends and colleagues from the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and prominent freelancers from France, Austria, Russia and the U.S., to her work curating series for young musicians a the the Bad Kissengen Festival, to her annual appearances at Les Folles Journées in Tokyo.
Ms. Kodama is a regular guest with both the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra and the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo. The Los Angeles Times pronounced her performance of the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival “commanding and electrifying.” Ms. Kodama has recorded Prokofiev concerti Nos. 1 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra on the ASV label, and Chopin No. 2 and Carl Loewe’s 2nd piano concerto with the Russian National Orchestra on PentaTone Classics. She is also featured on a new recording of Beethoven piano sonatas. This release, the FIFTH installment in her traversal of the complete Beethoven sonatas for the Dutch label, features SONATAS OP.79 ETC. She recently recorded Beethoven Piano concerti Nos. 1-3 with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; she is due to record Nos. 4 and 5 in the next few seasons.
Ms. Kodama made her New York recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in 1995. Her U.S. festival appearances include Mostly Mozart, Bard Music Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, California's Midsummer Mozart Festival, Ravinia, and Aspen. In Europe she has appeared at festivals in Lockenhaus, Lyon, Montpelier, Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Verbier, LA ROQUE D`ANTHERON and Évian.
Mari Kodama was born in Osaka and raised in GERMANY AND Paris. At the Conservatoire National in Paris, she studied piano with Germaine Mounier and chamber music with Genevieve Joy-Dutilleux. She has also worked with Tatiana Nikolaeva and Alfred Brendel.
Sophie Harmsen
Mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen is very much in international demand as an interpreter of Mozart’s works. In November 2016, she debuted with great success as Annio (Mozart La clemenza di Tito) at Teatro Real Madrid under the baton of Christophe Rousset. René Jacobs has invited her to sing Dorabella in Così fan tutte in 2017 on a tour of Europe and Asia with the Freiburger Barockorchester.
She is excited to be singing the Weihnachtsoratorium with Thomas Hengelbrock and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the c minor Mass with Adam Fischer and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, as well as concerts and recordings of Bruckner's sacred works with the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
In her work with famous directors such as Robert Wilson, William Kentridge and Andreas Dresen she was able to hone her already convincing and much praised acting skills.
Early Music is one of Sophie Harmsen's greatest loves. Her solo recitals with Concerto Köln and Capella Augustina were raving successes and concerts with Vaclav Luks, Jos van Immerseel, Raphaël Pichon, Andrea Marcon, as well as numerous concerts and CD recordings with Frieder Bernius are documentation of her artistic versatility. The Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and Sophie Harmsen share a particular bond, as she has often sung with Helmuth Rilling and still appears with Hans Christoph Rademann on a regular basis.
Sophie Harmsen is a frequent performer at large international festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Bachfest Leipzig.
She sees the collaboration with large symphony orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is an integral part of her artistic journey.
Having already travelled the world at a young age as the daughter of German diplomats, Sophie Harmsen studied at the University of Cape Town and with Prof. Dr. Edith Wiens and now lives in Berlin with her family.
