English:Kiyotaka Izumi (Q549818)

Kiyotaka Izumi was born in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from "The Music High School Attached to the Faculty of Music, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music", after which he studied with Professor Levente Kende and Heidi Hendrickx at the "Royal Flemish Conservatory of Antwerp", and Professor Boyan Vodenitcharov at the "Royal Conservatory of Brussels".

He performed at concerts such as the "International Chopin Festival" in Gent and the "Royal Gala Concert" for the Prince and Princess of Belgium.
He played with orchestras such as the "National Orchestra of Belgium"(Prokofiev), "Hermes Ensemble"(Stravinsky), "Concert festival
Orchestre"(Grieg) and the "Orchestra of the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp"(Beethovan). He has won several prizes at international competitions, including the "Benelux Young Virtuoso competition"(1998), the "International EPTA Competition for piano-duo", winning also the "SABAM-Prize"(1999), the "International Emmanuel Durlet competition", Belgium, winning also a special prize for "Best interpretation of a work by Emmanuel Durlet"(2002), the "International Maria Yudina competition for piano-duo", Russia(2005), the "International Piano Competition Vila de Capdepera", Spain, special prize for "Best interpretation of music by a Balearic Island Composer" (2005).

He has performed in master classes for Murray Perahia, Jan Wijn, Jozef De Beenhouwer, Hans Leygraf, and he studied privately with Conrad Hansen in Hamburg, Germany.

In 2002 Kiyotaka received the "Master of Music" degree from the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp with 'Highest Merit' for piano. In 2005 he received the diploma "Specialization Instrument-chamber music" from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. He has performed concerts in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Japan. In 2004 he recorded a CD featuring works by F.Chopin and the Belgian composer Emmanuel Durlet(1893-1977).
He is a piano teacher at Municipal Music Academy of Borgerhout and at the hogeschool Antwerpen.