​RISA  KOJIMA

Risa Kojima began her piano training at the age of four and completed the Junior Expert Music Course at Yamaha Music School. She won several competitions, including the highest placement at the 22nd Young Artist Piano Concours (2014), 1st Prize and Best Special Award in all categories at the Akira Miyoshi 7ème Concours de Piano (2016), and the Silver Prize at the 3rd Berlin International Music Competition (2019). Risa studied as a scholarship student at the Tokyo Conservatory of Music in the piano soloist class with Prof. Mari Takeda and Miho Shimada, earning her teaching credential at the same time.

 

After graduating from Japan in 2016, she continued her studies at the Hamburg Conservatory with Gundel Deckert and Christiane Behn. In 2017, she was accepted as a master's student in the piano class of Prof. Konstanze Eickhorst at the Lübeck Conservatory of Music and graduated with the highest grade. In 2019, she won the Steinway Promotion Prize and was invited to NDR to record her interpretation of the piece: Scherzo in C minor Op. 14 by Clara Schumann, which was later broadcast on the radio. She developed her ability as a concert pianist in the course "Concert Exam/Master class Piano" with Prof. Gilead Mishory at the Musikhochschule Freiburg. In 2021 she was selected for a scholarship by the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Freiburg association.

 

She attended master classes with well-known pianists and pedagogues such as Prof. Akiko Ebi, Prof. Bernd Goetzke, Prof. Olivier Gardon and Prof. Ronan O'Hora. She performs in Japan and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician, as well as a soloist with orchestra.

 

As her passions range from baroque music to contemporary classical music, she has performed works by several contemporary composers at their premieres. As a hobby, she plays the Japanese traditional instrument koto and performed as an ensemble at the National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo.

 

She currently teaches at the Musikatelier Ottensen (MAO) and the Junge Musikakademie Hamburg.