About
Naoko Sonoda was born in Japan and studied under Seiko Ezawa and Mikhail Voskresensky at the Toho Gakuen School of Music before postgraduate studies at the Universität der Künste in Berlin under Rainer Becker. She also received tuition in chamber music from Tabea Zimmermann and Natalia Gutman.
This was followed by master courses with Hans Leygraf, Ferenc Rados, Klaus Hellwig, Pascal Devoyon and Jacques Rouvier. After graduating, Naoko was engaged by the Universität der Künste in Berlin, the Hochschule für Musik Hanns-Eisler Berlin and the Franz Liszt Musikhochschule in Weimar as a collaborative pianist. Naoko has been a prize-winner at numerous international piano and chamber music competitions, including those in Argento and Trieste (Italy) and Łódź (Poland). Solo and chamber music concert invitations have taken her all across Europe and Asia, including festivals such as that in Schleswig-Holstein. She has performed with orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and chamber music partners have included Kolja Blacher, Hartmut Rohde, Mark Gothoni, Danjulo Ishizaka, Jens-Peter Maintz, Andrei Ionita and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Naoko has received prizes as best accompanist at the International Music Competition in Markneukirchen (2013), the Lutosławski International Cello Competition in Warsaw (2015) and the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition.