Shinra by 432Hz pianist KUNIKO

Artist Profile

432Hz pianist KUNIKO
432Hz Pianist KUNIKO | Dharma name: Kyuen Nakamura KUNIKO is a pianist and yamabushi living at Kuroyama Santaki, a sacred site associated with Shugendo. She graduated from the Music High School Attached to Tokyo College of Music and later from Tokyo College of Music. Specializing in the Romantic repertoire, she made her debut recital at Tokyo Opera City, where Musica Nova praised her as "a pianist with music of remarkable scale." She later suspended her performing career due to excessive stress, but resumed her activities after meeting trainer Akiko Matsuzawa. Since her student days, KUNIKO had felt a sense of incongruity in performing Romantic and earlier repertoire on the modern piano, which led her to focus on the historical development of pitch standards. In 2018, with the cooperation of piano producer Hiroshi Takagi, recipient of the 2023 Nippon Steel Music Award Special Prize, she succeeded in the research and development of a modern piano designed for period pitch. In 2020, her CD Parallel World, recorded on a world-first A=432Hz piano of its kind, was selected as recommended in-flight audio programming by ANA. The following year, she gave a successful solo recital at Suntory Hall Blue Rose. Her performances on an A=432Hz period-pitch modern piano have attracted attention not only in Romantic repertoire, but also in improvisational performances held in natural settings, temples, and shrines. She approaches A=432Hz as a pitch that resonates with the rhythms and cycles of the natural world, and this concept has become an important part of her musical expression. KUNIKO also has a strong background in choral music. From childhood, she studied under Sadako Oyama and took part in overseas tours. Singing remains at the foundation of her musical expression and deeply influences her approach to the piano. In 2023, she received Buddhist ordination and precepts at Shogo-in Monzeki, the head temple of the Honzan-ha branch of Shugendo. She is both an ordained Buddhist practitioner and a yamabushi in the Shugendo tradition.
Artist page
432Hz pianist KUNIKOの他のリリース