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Explaining a subtle point during an interview on the occasion of her recital at Philia Hall, Yokohama, in November 2011. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
THESE PAGES ON AIMI KOBAYASHI are part of my personal website, which deals with other subjects altogether. My aim in them is to provide links and information that will help those who know some english to follow the development of this remarkable young pianist. Opinions expressed here are mine alone unless stated otherwise, or unless obvious from the context. Apart from my involvement in arranging a recital for her in 2009, I have no formal connections with Aimi, her family or teacher, or with organizations that support or represent her. The pages started with the Video Catalogue, intended to ease the problem of watching her YouTube clips in a systematic way. Subsequently I added the Concert Schedule pages, After the Concert pages (comments on Aimi’s performances), and more recently Discography and Competitions pages. Although I’m a big fan, this is not a fan site so much as an attempt to present information about Aimi Kobayashi’s performance history in a way that will make it easier for those who wish to follow her development as a pianist in a systematic way. The information presented here comes from a wide range of sources, including people who know Aimi. “Aimi”, by the way, is pronounced “I-me”, with the “I” pronounced the way we say the first person singular pronoun “I” in English. The name is a combination of two Chinese characters meaning “love” (ai) and “fruit” or “a dream comes true” (mi). You’ll sometimes see it translated by Google translators as “Real love”. So maybe the closest meaning is True Love. Kobayashi is a Japanese name meaning a small wood. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CONTENTS OF THESE PAGES (For the latest additions, see the What’s New section below)
Catalogue of Aimi Kobayashi video clips on YouTube and elsewhere A user-friendly catalogue illustrated by grabs from the videos. Here are links to the pages: Videos 16 years on — Current page
Aimi’s Concert Schedule I try to keep track of her public performances on these pages: Concert Schedule 2012 — Current page Aimi’s engagements are listed by To-on (her Japanese music agency’s site) and on her EMI Japan page (for links see below). However, these are incomplete and it can be difficult to pick out the information, so for the time being I am continuing with my own listing.
After the Concert — Reviews etc The After the Concert section logs reactions to Aimi’s public performances. Also has photos taken at concerts, interviews, and transcripts of TV programs. Currently there are three main pages, on which you’ll find links to the reviews etc. on other pages:
Competitions Begun after Aimi won gold at a piano competition in 2010. Click here Discography Begun after confirmation that Aimi recorded for her second CD in December 2010. Click here Site Map If you can’t find what you want, use the Site Map. Mainly useful for finding the reviews and so on in the After the Concert section. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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25 Mar: I’m catching up with the new videos that've been posted recently on YouTube -- mainly from Philia Hall last November, but also a Ballade no. 1 played at the recent PTNA competition prizewinners’ event. That means a new page in the Video Catalog (page 5). 24 Feb: Those of you within reach of Leipzig, Germany, may be interested in the week of masterclasses and public concerts Aimi will be participating in at the Mendelssohn Academy in July. Details on the Concert Schedule 2012 page 2 Feb: Gina Bachauer Young Artists Competition: Not unexpectedly, Aimi’s name is on the list of those who have been accepted for the competition. See entry for end June on the Concert Schedule 2012 page. 7 Jan: Concert Schedule 2012 started as concert announcements have begun to appear. Japanese TV viewers may be interested in the broadcast on 19 January of parts of the Yokohama recital Aimi gave last November — for details see first entry on the new Schedule page. 30 Dec: Aimi writes about ensemble playing in her November essay in CHOPIN Magazine. See bottom of the CHOPIN blogs page. 25 Dec: Christina’s report on the St Petersburg recital is now posted on After the Concert St Petersburg page 19 Dec: Aimi and Mrs Ninomiya flew to snowy Moscow yesterday, and the Russian concerts are almost upon us! Christina will be reporting on the St Petersburg recital on 24th December, but we don’t know anyone who is going to the Moscow concert on 22nd. If you will be there and would like to write something for us, contact me at raham@btinternet .com . You can write in Russian and we will translate. Be brave! We don’t need musical criticism, just an impression of your experience. 27 Nov: Just started, a page on the recital of 26th November at the Philia Hall, Yokohama. Ichiro’s photos and a try at a crit of the Appassionata by me. More by and by. Philia Hall recital page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 | Portrait of the Artist A charming portrait by Margaret Wierzbicka that captures Aimi at the keyboard just perfectly — the flying hair, the feline grace, the infinite care that goes into every note. The painting, entitled Amazing Little Pianist, is acrylic on canvas, 20" x 16", and was completed in August 2010. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A copy of the portrait, printed on to canvas, was presented to Aimi at her Weill Hall recital in New York on April 3rd, 2011 (see on right).
Margaret’s website is www.paintingsbymargaret.com For a slideshow of this and other paintings (to rather nice music), see Margaret’s video on YouTube | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Other Information on the Internet (artist’s pages etc)
For such an extraordinary talent, there’s little information in english about Aimi Kobayashi on the internet. For current information and her biography, try her artist’s pages on To-on and EMI, both in Japanese. Disappointingly she does not yet have a website of her own.
Artist’s pages To-on Artist Promotion: In Japanese. As of December 2009, Aimi’s appearances within Japan are managed by the To-on Artist Promotion agency. Her page on the To-on website is here. Clicking on the Concerts tab gives information about forthcoming engagements. To-on has started a Facebook page for Aimi, but as of July 2011 there’s little to see on it. EMI Japan: In Japanese. In late 2009 Aimi signed a recording contract with EMI Japan. Aimi has two sets of pages on the EMI Japan website. What they call her official website (a single page with 7 video links) is here. Her artist’s page, which gives updated information, is here. Both sites have updated information about concert appearances and links to news and press comment. AADGT The USA-based AADGT (American Association for Development of the Gifted and Talented) is Aimi’s main sponsor and represents her outside Japan. PTNA The Piano Teachers’ National Association (of Japan; link is to english home page) has limited information about Aimi. Her artist’s page is here (in Japanese). For other info you have to dig through past issues of the annual newsletter, published in english. The PTNA holds the competitions in which Aimi is shown participating in many of the YouTube videos. An old fan club site In Japanese. Seemingly defunct since late 2007, it has quite a few photos from earlier years: Fan Club Wikipedia Due to the restrictions on what can be written in Wikipedia articles, all are derivative (they list biographical details you will have seen elsewhere) and have limited information. Now illustrated by a nice photo taken by Tom Wierzbicki in Warsaw in 2009. English (extensively updated in Aug 2011 and now a useful reference, especially for performances abroad and prize-winning history); French; German; Japanese; Russian. The Russian entry is very poor and gives prominence to a review from 2009 by Polish critic Piotr Matwiejczuk. This astonishingly unperceptive assessment was written at the time of the Warsaw performance in August 2009 of the Chopin no. 2 and Mozart no. 20 concertos, which were both very finely played — the Chopin especially so. Matwiejczuk’s review is a prime example of ears closed by a blank prejudice about child musicians. A translation of his piece can be read here on my site. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Acknowledgments
My thanks for help in preparing these pages to Tom Wierzbicki and Christina Shatuho. Tom somehow finds the time from being a distinguished professor at MIT to tirelessly promote her interests in the USA, and especially his native Poland. Christina is a gifted young Russian pianist living in Estonia, but she is also a resourceful internet detective who generously shares all kinds of things she finds on the internet about Aimi. Christina runs her own Aimi Kobayashi Fan’s Channel on YouTube. More recently Hiroshi Watanabe and Ichiro Takahashi in Japan have been contributing invaluable translations of magazine articles, blogger comments and television broadcasts in Japanese that would otherwise be inaccessible to non-Japanese followers of Aimi’s career. I am very grateful for all the hard work they have done to give us a glimpse into Japanese responses to Aimi. I am especially indebted to Patrick Tabet, now no longer with us. On top of being the first to post a substantial proportion of the earlier videos linked on these pages, and thus helping to draw attention to Aimi in the West, Patrick contributed a huge amount of background information by generously sharing his fund of knowledge and informed opinion, for, as many of you will know, he spent part of his career as a professional music critic with the French newspaper Le Figaro. Not least, for some years he was a private sponsor of Aimi. Without these contributors my pages would not be what they are. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aimi’s lucky charm . . . If, like me, you’ve wondered about the pendant Aimi briefly touches before she performs, here are the best pics of it I’ve found so far. On the left is a still from from a video filmed during her visit to Warsaw in August 2009. Aimi is looking surprised because someone has just dropped their camera. On the right are two blow-ups from photos taken in New York in April 2011. We can now see that the pendant is a single pearl mounted on a gold holder in the form of a quaver. My thanks to Janek Plucinski for sharing his video and to Glenn Alcott for his photos. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Next page: Video Catalog page 1 (3-8 years)
My name is Romilly Hambling and I live in London, England. Errors, omissions, bad links etc can be reported to me at raham [AT] btinternet [DOT] com
Background motifs (tiles) on these pages by Tenkoku-Sozai AOI
Page created 12 October 2008. Last modified 3 April 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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