Suntory Hall’s announcement for ARD International Competition

Suntory Hall is delighted to announce that the alumni of Suntory Hall Chamber Music Academy, Aoi Trio (Piano Trio) won the first prize at this year’s ARD International Competition (Piano Trio Category) in Munich in September.

The trio was the first group to win the first prize in the chamber music categories since the Tokyo Quartet 48 years ago. The other two groups were awarded joint third prize, which showed that the jury’s decision was unanimous.

Aoi Trio (Photo credit: Suntory Hall)

The group was formed in 2016 by Kyoko Ogawa (Violin), Yu Ito (Cello), and Kosuke Akimoto (Piano), who met at the Tokyo University of the Arts and as fellows of the Suntory Hall Chamber Music Academy. The name Aoi is an acronym of their surnames, but also the Japanese name for the flower hollyhock (Alcea rosea).

As fellows of the Chamber Music Academy, the three members received chamber music coaching twice a month, and also participated in Suntory Hall’s annual early summer festival Chamber Music Garden and outreach activities such as foyer concerts and school concerts. Furthermore, they were selected to take part in an overseas exchange programme with Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music of the National University of Singapore.

The jury of the competition acknowledged the wealth of their ensemble experience praising that “they were not a group of soloists but displayed fine chamber music playing”.

Suntory Hall presented a special concert featuring the trio to commemorate their achievement on 14 Dec 2018 at Blue Rose (Small Hall).

Video for the final competition can be viewed here.

Click here to visit Suntory Hall’s website.