Izumi Kimura

About this event

Japanese born and Irish resident, Izumi Kimura is a highly acclaimed practitioner of contemporary piano music, improviser, and educator. After graduating from Toho Gakuen Music University in Tokyo she moved to Ireland and has performed extensively throughout the country and abroad as a solo, orchestral and chamber musician and broadcast including on RTE Lyric FM, RTE one, Dublin City FM, Raidió na Life, and RTE 2 television.

She has worked with some of the leading performers and ensembles from both disciplines of classical and jazz, including RTE Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Michael D'arcy, Ioana Petcu-Colan, Ken Edge, Benjamin Dwyer, Susan Doyle, Cora Venus Lunny, and many more from the world of classical music, and with jazz musicians including Tommy Halferty, Ronan Guilfoyle, Michael Buckley, Joe O'Callaghan, Oki Itaru, Makoto Sato, Benoít Delbecq, Stéphane Payen, Sarah Buechi, Fuzzy Logic Ensemble and more.

Performer of New Music
She has worked with Irish composers and premiered many works including pieces especially written for her. Composers she worked with include Ronan Guilfoyle, Benjamin Dwyer, John Buckley, Kevin O.Connell, Gerald Barry, Ian Wilson, Greg Caffrey, Fergus Johnston, and more.

She has performed at festivals in Ireland and abroad including RTE Living Music Festival, Boyle Arts Festival, Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Bray Jazz Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ghent Street Festival of New Music in Belgium, Music 21's 'Brazil Now', 'Artes Da Irlanda' in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Creative Connexions in Sitges, Spain, and more.

Improviser
Izumi has been developing her reputation as an improviser, and performed with many leading musicians and groups, including trio with Bassist Ronan Guilfoyle and vocalist Sarah Buechi, duo with guitarist Tommy Halferty, and Joe O'Callaghan, respectively, saxophonist and flautist Michael Buckley, and a trio with guitarist Shane Latimer and drummer Matthew Jacobson, with the support of Music Network and Arts Council, Fuzzy Logic Ensemble, and many more.

In June 2016, she has released two albums of improvised music - a duo album with Tommy Halferty, 'Maelstrom', and a solo album 'A Dream Within A Dream'. Both of the albums have had broadcast on RTE Lyric FM.

She also performs with free improvising quartet with Stéphane Payen, Itaru Oki, and Makoto Sato in Paris.

Teacher
She currently teaches Aural Training and Tonal Harmony at Berklee Track (Higher Certificate in Music) in Newpark Music Centre in Dublin. As a piano teacher she has over 20 years of experience privately and in schools, and has worked as a deputy in Royal Irish Academy of Music, for Ray Keary, Patricia Kavanagh, Colma Briscou, Peter Tuite, and Conor Linehan.