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 returns 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 Kissengen, Germany and elsewhere.
Last season Ms. Kodama performed Mozart concerti K.595 and K.414 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.
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 with pianist Marino Formenti 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 [PTC 5186 067]. This release, the fourth installment in her traversal of the complete Beethoven sonatas for the Dutch label, features Op.2, Nos. 1, 2, and 3. 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 and Évian.
Mari Kodama was born in Osaka and raised in 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.
