Dr. KAZUHA NAKAHARA
Head of Piano Program

kazuha

KAZUHA NAKAHARA, pianist is an active and versatile performer and teacher. She gave her debut recital in Kashima Bunka-Kaikan (Japan) in 1997, and frequently returns to Japan for solo and chamber engagements. Since her professional orchestra debut with the Fort Worth Symphony (1999) as winner of the TCU/Cliburn Piano Institute's concerto competition, she has concertized as a solo recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with orchestra in Asia, Great Britain and at numerous venues in the United States. Her appearances during the 2010-11 concert season will include solo and trio engagements in Osaka, Yokohama, New York, Boston, Indiana, and Ohio.

 

Dr. Nakahara has won top prizes in a number of competitions including the Buckeye Piano Competition (first prize), the Cleveland Philharmonic Concerto Competition, the Lake Erie Piano Competition and more recently Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Competition and the Indiana University Concerto Competition (performed Mozart's Concerto K. 482 with the IU Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Uriel Segal). A very active and accomplished chamber musician, Ms. Nakahara has performed in many prestigious concert stages. Her London-based Amaryllis Trio was a finalist in the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition (2001), and they appeared in guest recitals at Oxford University and Cambridge University. At that same competition, she was selected Best Chamber Music Pianist, an award that was bestowed on her in the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall (London).

 

Dr. Nakahara completed her D.M. degree in Piano Performance at Indiana University, where she was a recipient of the prestigious Chancellor's Fellowship. She holds B.M. and M. M. degrees in Piano Performance, both with Distinguished Achievement in Performance honors, from the New England Conservatory as well as a Performance/Recital Diploma from Royal Academy of Music (London). Her principal teachers have included Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Christopher Elton, Veronica Jochum and Verena Dambrans. She has performed in master classes of Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Stephen Kovacevich, Angela Hewitt, John O'Conor, Ann Schein, Yoheved Kaplinsky and Rebecca Penneys.


Dr. Nakahara served on the faculties of Vincennes University (IN), where she was Adjunct Professor of Piano, and Indiana University where she was a guest lecturer to teach Piano Literature class for Master of Music/Graduate students. She also worked with talented pre-college pianists at the IU Summer Piano Academy and the IU Young Pianist Program from 2002 until 2010. Dr. Nakahara joined the faculty of the UPH Conservatory in August 2010.