Called “Pianistic fire” by the Charleston Post, Japanese pianist Yoshikazu Nagai has impressed audiences and critics alike with his fresh interpretations and dramatic presentation style across North America and abroad.

Praised for his fresh interpretations and dramatic presentation style, Nagai has performed as soloist and chamber musician in leading venues worldwide. His schedule in recent seasons includes recitals in Naples, Seoul, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Beijing, Cincinnati, Chicago, and San Francisco and in collaborations with the Ives Quartet, violinists Robert Mann and Anthony Marwood, and with orchestras across the country.

He has appeared at many international music festivals, and his live performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, RAI Italian National TV, Hong Kong National Radio RTHK4, and on public radio stations in San Francisco, Houston, Cleveland, and Salt Lake City.

He is the winner of numerous international piano competitions, including first prize at the 2002 Washington International Piano Competition.

Currently chair of the piano department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Nagai has been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancements in the Arts for excellence in teaching and his students are top prizewinners of national and international competitions.

Nagai studied with John Perry at Rice University; Paul Schenly and Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he was awarded the Malvina Podis Prize in Piano upon graduation; and Duane Hulbert at the University of Puget Sound, with whom he recorded the Glasunov Fantasie for two Pianos, Op. 104.