Nobuyuki Tsujii

Described by the UK’s Observer as the “definition of virtuosity” Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii (Nobu), who has been blind from birth, won the joint Gold Medal at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and has gone on to earn an international reputation for the passion and excitement he brings to his live performances.

Nobu marked this past summer with two stellar US debuts: with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as part of the Ravinia Festival and with the Cleveland Orchestra as part of Summers at Severance. During the 2025–26 season, he returns to Carnegie Hall twice, once in recital and later with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In Europe, he will give a long-awaited recital in Munich followed closely by performances of the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor with conductor Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris. Mäkelä, Tsujii, and musicians from the orchestra will also join forces in a chamber concert to start the week in Paris. Nobu’s recital and orchestral repertoire is varied and this season will include Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with performances in Tokyo, Mexico City, and Oslo.

Previous seasons have included concerts with leading orchestras worldwide, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Philharmonia Orchestra, the NHK Symphony, the Seattle and Baltimore symphony orchestras, and the Münchner Philharmoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich at the Wiener Musikverein, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. He maintains a close relationship with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he performed a sold-out concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms in 2023. Notable past collaborations also include the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg under Kent Nagano, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Klaus Mäkelä, the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover under Andrew Manze, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko, and the BBC Philharmonic under Juanjo Mena. Nobu’s appearances as a recitalist have included performances at prestigious venues worldwide such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium; the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris; London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Royal Albert Hall; the Berlin Philharmonie; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall, and Singapore’s Esplanade.

Nobu’s debut Deutsche Grammophon album, released digitally on in November 2024, featured a Beethoven program that paired the towering Hammerklavier Sonata, Op. 106 with Liszt’s transcription of the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (“To the Distant Beloved”). His previous recordings with Avex Classics International include Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini under Vasily Petrenko with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; and Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Nobu has also recorded several recital programs of Chopin, Mozart, Debussy, and Liszt.

A live DVD recording of Nobu’s 2011 Carnegie Hall recital was named DVD of the Month by Gramophone, as was his latest DVD release, Touching the Sound—The Improbable Journey of Nobuyuki Tsujii, a documentary film by Peter Rosen.