Azumi Nishizawa

A noted interpreter of Spanish piano music, Japanese pianist Azumi Nishizawa has been a frequent guest artist at international music festivals and a performer in recitals and radio broadcasts. Born in Tokyo, Nishizawa attended the Toho Gakuen School of Music, where she was a student of Michiko Okamoto and Ikuyo Kamiya. She later studied at the Geneva Conservatory of Music with Dominique Merlet, before moving to Madrid to work with Joaquin Soriano. She has toured Japan, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain, and in 2010 she received the Internet Music International Friendship Prize for her performances around the world. She has appeared at many festivals, such as the Société des Arts de Genève, the Festival Chopin in Paris, the Kyoto Music Festival, the Music Festival in Vicenza, Summer Classics in Madrid, the Torreciudad Festival in Huesca, and the International Music and Dance Festival of Ubeda, among many others. Nishizawa has also taken an avid interest in playing chamber music, collaborating with members of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Cuarteto Assai, trumpeter Jorge Almeida, saxophonist Nobuya Sugawa, and flutist Mariano Martín. As a recording artist, Nishizawa has specialized in Spanish music, releasing Falla: The Complete Piano Works in 2011 on Verso, Albeniz: Iberia in 2014 on Prometheus, and Debussy Hommage in 2018 on IBS Classical, which included pieces by Albéniz, Mompou, Granados, and Falla. She has been active as a teacher, serving as an adjunct professor at Shanghai Normal University and as an instructor for Yamaha in Spain and Portugal.
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