DUO YKEDA / Tamayo Ikeda-Patrick Zygmanowski

www.pianoduo.fr  www.zyg.fr  www.tamayo.fr 

Tamayo Ikeda was born in Japan in 1971, and began playing at the age of three. She joined the Toho Gakuen institute 1986 and won third prize at the 41st Japan National Piano Competition.

She moved to France to complete her studies on the advice of pianist Vlado Perlemuter. She was immediately accepted at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris, where she studied piano with Jacques Rouvier and chamber music with Régis Pasquier. 

She was awarded two first prizes in these disciplines before joining the higher studies class of Pascal Devoyon. Tamayo Ikeda is the beneficiary of a grant from the APEF and the Société Générale Bank, and has received valuable advice from leading artists such as Dimitri Bashkirov, Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Léon Fleisher and Maria Joao Pirès. Her intuitive yet structured playing style complements her interpretation with poetry, charm and architectural interest.

Her unique approach to the repertoire has been rewarded in many competitions, including Second Prize and the special Claude Debussy prize at the Yvonne Lefébure International competition (no first prize was awarded that year), a special prize at the Porto International competition, and both First Prize and the special Casadesus prize at the Francis Poulenc International competition.

Tamayo Ikeda has appeared with the Orchestre d’Avignon at a number of major European festivals, in Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia and Portugal, as well as in Japan and on Radio France. She has appeared with soloists such as Pascal Devoyon, Jean Ferrandis, Svetlin Roussev, Francis Dudziak, Roland Pidoux, Roland Daugareil and Patrick Zygmanowski. Her discography includes a recording of works by Poulenc and Fauré (Arcobaleno, 2001) as well as a compact disc of Stockhausen sonatas with the clarinettist Jean-Philippe Vivier (Solstice, 2001).

The French pianist Patrick Zygmanowski was born in 1970, and began his musical studies at the age of six. He gave his first recital at eleven.

He was awarded two First Prizes, for piano and chamber music, at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Paris, where he studied with Jacques Rouvier, Jean Hubeau, Lev Naoumov, Menahem Pressler, and Pascal Devoyon as a graduate student.

Having been awarded a grant by the German government, he went on to study with Gerhard Oppitz at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.

His passion for chamber music led to three First Prizes at international competitions: the City of Paris International Competition in 1994, the FNAPEC competition, with the clarinettist Florent Héau, in 1995, and the Henri Sauguet International competition in 1995. Critical acclaim has highlighted Patrick Zygmanowski’s attentive accompaniment, intelligence and humour.

His playing has been described as lifting his partner with elegance and authority, as in a ballet (“Le Monde de la Musique”), and Zygmanowski himself as a sensitive artist with a delicate and expressive touch (“Répertoire”).  He has taken part in numerous festivals, including the Roque d’Anthéron festival, the Musique en Côte Basque festival, the Académie Maurice Ravel in Saint Jean de Luz, Midem in Cannes, the Rencontres Musicales en Lorraine, the Orangerie de Sceaux festival, the MusicAlp festival, the Flâneries Musicales de Reims and the Young Artists Festival in Kyoto.  Patrick Zygmanowski has played with many French orchestras and has also made international appearances as a soloist in Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea, South Africa and Indonesia. He has appeared with leading French and international soloists, including Roland Daugareil, Florent Héau, Michel Michalakakos, Bettina Faiss, Jean Ferrandis, Tamayo Ikeda, Nicolas Dautricourt, Roland Pidoux and Romain Garioud. His discography includes a recording of French music for clarinet and piano with Florent Héau (Lyrinx, 1995), as well as a complete set of Brahms and Reger sonatas, also with Florent Héau (Zig Zag, 2003), which met with universal acclaim in the press (Diapason said “our young performers speak the musical language of Brahms with admirable naturalness, poetry and delicacy of touch”). Forthcoming discs will feature music by Ravel, Lazkano and Piazolla (with the Innova Trio).

In the course of 2006, Patrick Zygmanowski will be appearing in Europe, the United States, Japan, China, Africa and Indonesia.   Patrick also teaches at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. In 2006 he will be taking on the artistic direction of the Musiques Festiv festival in the Gironde.

The Ykeda Duo has specialised in performing piano music for four hands (although they also play on two pianos). They are devoting their enormous respective talents to the celebration of this rich and exciting repertoire, and are known today as its most outstanding proponents.  A DVD of music by Ravel and Stravinsky is soon to be released by CreativArt.