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Mrs Ninomiya seen during the interview transcribed here | ||
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Interview with Mrs Yuko Ninomiya An LCI TV France program made by Jacques Collet included this interview with Aimi's teacher Yuko Ninomiya and recital excerpts, and was broadcast 6 January 2007. From other scenes in the program it appears that the interview was recorded during a visit by Aimi and Ninomiya to the USA in late October 2006, when Aimi played at Carnegie Hall. The interview was voiced-over in French, and this translation (here slightly edited) was provided on YouTube by the original poster, mikka2007. The clip is no longer available on YouTube and is unlikely to reappear. | ||
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Mrs Ninomiya: I asked her mother “How did you teach her?” because her feet didn’t reach the pedals. Let’s say she plays a sonata by Mozart. She went to all the disk shops and bought all the versions of the work she was practising. It could have been Vladimir Ashkenazy or Yevgeny Kissin or whoever. She likes especially such and such piece from such and such composer. She doesn’t specially like the interpretation from one or the other. She doesn’t choose the version she likes to imitate it but to adapt it from the bottom of the heart. When I listened to her when she was 8 years old, I was stunned. (Clip of Aimi playing) Presenter: We too. We can see for ourselves the maturity she acquired in three years. The natural grace with which she acts at the keyboard also belongs to her playing and expresses her extreme sensibility in this nocturne of Chopin. And yet, her learning is nothing short of easy, as she lives 1,000 km from her teacher. YN: She comes to my place, stays two or three days and then goes back home to the prefecture of Yamamoto [Yamaguchi?] in the south of Japan. Sometimes she doesn’t practise, so when she comes back to my home I have to go back to where we left off. First I talk to her nicely, but when she sees that I’m getting angry she remembers what I told her two weeks before. Of course, there are times when she isn’t on top form, but what’s funny with her is that just before she goes on stage I tell her “You play very well, you just have to play like yesterday.” If I see she didn’t understand me, I’ll say “If you don’t play like yesterday, I’ll be mad at you.” Then she goes. She is unpredictable, but very determined. (Clip of Aimi playing) Presenter: We understand. This result comes from the strict piano education Aimi receives. Yuko, her teacher, radiates authority, and cannot hide long the tremendous affection and admiration she has for this little samurai of the keyboard. At her age, Aimi expresses herself far better on the piano than in interviews. Nevertheless, let’s ask the person herself . . . Aimi: Usually I make a video of my practising and when I go back home I watch it and try to reproduce what Yuko told me. She also gives her opinons/advice on the phone. YN: Of course it is difficult to correct over the phone, to show her the exact keys/tone/tonality. Nevertheless I make sure she works. She thinks that I won’t call her the day after, but I often do, and obviously this unexpected call surprises her and then she goes back to work. Presenter: The result: this masterpiece, Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata no. 8, 40 minutes [!! Actually more like 20, depending on how fast you go]. She just began to learn it in the summer. No need to be an expert to admire this incredible sense of phrasing. YN: I think she began to learn this piece in August, but she didn’t study it like a fanatic. She has truly been working on this piece for a month. In fact I think she really studied it for 10 days, and I’m not kidding.
Later in the clip Jacques Collet asks Aimi “Do you feel you’ve progressed since last year?” Aimi responds in Japanese with charming shyness, and according to Mrs Ninomiya, who translates to camera, this is what she said: Oh, she says: “The difference between last year and this year is that I try to make a different sound, to find another sound colour [French voice-over: couleur sonore] . . . how to ‘sing’” [Ninomiya’s own words, which we hear at this point] . . . she thinks: “I have got a little better since last year.” ————————————————————————
More about Mrs Ninomiya Yuko Ninomiya is currently (2010) vice chair of the Piano Teachers’ National Association of Japan (PTNA), where she also serves as head of the Competition Group. She is on the staff of the Toho Gakuen School of Music, Tokyo (also see Wikipedia entry), where Aimi has been a pupil since 2007. She frequently sits on the juries of piano competitions, both in Japan and abroad. This Gina Bachauer Foundation page has quite a detailed summary of her career. Mrs Ninomiya served on the jury of the Foundation’s International Artists Piano Competition held in Salt Lake City in June 2010. The competition was won by the 19-year-old Russian-Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniusas. There’s a little more information on this page of the Hartford University Observer, which mainly deals with her husband’s career. | ||
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There is an interview with Mrs Ninomiya here, on page 39 of the October 2008 issue of iNTOUCH, the monthly magazine for members of the Tokyo American Club. Clicking on the thumb link on the right takes you to the cover page for the issue. You then need to move along the thumbnail links below to reach pages 38-39. Do this by clicking on the second white dot immediately beneath the thumbnails. You should then see the thumbnail for the two-page spread with the Ninomiya interview on the far right — it looks like the thumb shown here. Click on that, and then click on the text on the right-hand page to magnify. It all behaves rather oddly and you’ll have to use trial and error to find out how to move around the text! | ||||
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December 2010 Mrs Ninomiya receives an award from the Japanese Ministry of Culture in recognition of long-term dedication to musical education. See PTNA news item here (in English). | ||
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