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Aimi playing the first movement, the allegro, of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 26, Coronation, with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, in January 2006. She was just ten. For me this is one of the most astonishing, beautiful and perfect things there is on YouTube. Here it is (opens in a new tab, plays for 10 min). Currently approaching 1.25 million views. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THESE PAGES on Aimi Kobayashi are part of my personal website, which deals with other subjects altogether. My aim in them is to provide links and information that will help those wth some knowledge of english to follow the development of this remarkable young pianist. Opinions expressed here are mine alone unless stated otherwise, or unless obvious from the context. I have no connections with Aimi or with organizations that support or promote her. The reason for starting the Video Catalogue was to get round the problem of watching her clips on YouTube in a systematic way. Trying to work through them on the YouTube site can be a frustrating experience. Here I list them, and now others that are appearing on other sites, by age (which one can’t always be certain of), and what she is playing is identified in most cases. Clicking on the links will make the videos play from the site where they have been posted, and they appear in a new tab. Some time later I added the Concert Schedule pages. These were primarily intended to cover concerts held outside Japan as there was no central source of information about them. For the time being I am including events within Japan for completeness, but these are now listed on Aimi’s artist’s pages on her musical agency’s website and on her pages on EMI Japan (links are given further down). “Aimi”, by the way, is pronounced “eye-mi”, not “ay-mi”. The name is a combination of two Chinese characters meaning “love” and “beauty” — so, one who loves beauty. Kobayashi is a Japanese name meaning a small wood or forest. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ON THESE PAGES Catalogue of Aimi Kobayashi video clips on YouTube A user-friendly catalogue illustrated by grabs from the videos. Here are links to the pages: I’ve included links to some sound recordings and video clips that aren’t on YouTube. There’s hardly a clip that isn’t worth listening to, and the sound on many is quite good. It’s best to listen through good external speakers or headphones. Some may find the Listing by Composer a useful way of exploring Aimi’s playing (these are text links): YouTube videos by composer (link disabled until reloading of YouTube clips is complete)
Concert Schedule I try to keep track of Aimi’s public performances on these pages:
After the Concert — Reviews etc After the Concert is a section logging reactions to some of Aimi’s more recent public performances. Also has some photos taken at her concerts. Starts here.
Endnotes A page for the stuff that wouldn’t go elsewhere: Endnotes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Note re removal and reloading of YouTube clips After a temporary glitch, many of Aimi’s YouTube videos are being reloaded on a new channel started by an old friend who is now called Aimiklingsor93. This is excellent news as we can all enjoy Aimi’s miraculous early playing once again. I check for reloads as often as I can, usually on a daily basis. Latest update: 22 February 2010. Checked to: 27 February. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
To help regulars keep up with the fairly frequent additions, I’ll try to keep a list of updates here. Feb 27: High-quality mp3s of the Mozart and Chopin concertos played at the Warsaw concert in August 2009 now available. Go to Warsaw entry on Video Catalogue page 3. Feb 22: Short clip of mixed video and stills from the Poznan concert of 21st Feb — see Video Catalogue page 4 near top. Some words from Aimi about her CD — see below in the CD/DVD section. And a link to some photos of Aimi playing at Poznan on 21 February (use this link). Feb 11: Chopin Scherzo no. 1 in B minor, op. 20, audio only — Video Catalogue page 3, after the EMI Japan YouTube clips about 2/3 way down. This is from Aimi's CD, and it's playable from the PTNA website. Feb 4: Summary of interview with Aimi in Chopin Magazine, Feb 2010 issue — Endnotes page. Feb 3: Aimi’s CD/DVD information updated — This page, see above. Feb 3: Complete recording of Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 1, Chopin Scherzo no. 1 and Schumann Widmung performed in St Petersburg, 2008 — Video Catalogue page 3, first entry. Jan 29: Concert Engagements 2010 page updated — Concert Engagements 2010. Jan 27: Chopin Etude Op. 10 no. 4 (short version) performed recently in a Tokyo studio — Video Catalogue page 4, first entry. Jan 18: Complete Waldstein sonata, performed in New York June 2008 — Video Catalogue page 3, half way down. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aimi recorded the pieces for her first CD at Merkin Hall, New York, in June 2008. For reasons that are too complicated to go into here, the appearance of the CD has been delayed . . . and delayed. The release date in Japan is now officially set for 10 February 2010. I understand that there are no plans at the moment for release outside Japan. BUT I am reliably informed by at least two people (one in the US, another in France) that they have successfully ordered from Amazon Japan. See the link below. The disk appears to be a single disk with a CD part and a DVD part.
What’s on the disk The pieces Aimi has recorded for the audio (CD) part of the disk are: Bach Partita no. 2 in C min; Beethoven Waldstein (the Japanese call it “Warutoshutain”) sonata; Chopin Scherzos nos 1 and 2; and Nocturne no. 20. The play time of these CD recordings is 52 min 28 s. Recorded in New York June 2008. The recording is top quality and well worth having (I have an earlier version). The DVD component has performances of the following three pieces, all by Chopin: Etude in C sharp min Op. 10 no. 4; Mazurka no. 41 in C sharp min Op. 63 no. 3; and Scherzo no. 1 in B minor Op. 20. If Aimi hasn’t skipped repeats, the play time would be 17 minutes. As she played these at her EMI Japan debut recital at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, on 14 December 2009 (and I believe the recital was filmed), it’s a fair guess that this is what you will see on the DVD. (It is possible, however, that they are studio performances recorded recently in Tokyo.) She also played the Waldstein sonata at this recital, apparently very finely, but the CD recording is the earlier one from Merkin Hall in June 2008. The Merkin performance is excellent. Aimi’s CD/DVD on Amazon Japan Shipping from 10 February 2010. If you order from outside Japan but you can’t read Japanese, you MUST USE a translation tool (such as Google provides). The price is 2,460 yen. That’s $27, or £16.50, or €19.50. I don’t know what mailing costs are. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
20 January 2010 EMI Japan released the cover pic for Aimi’s CD/DVD today here. The page also gives the full contents of the CD and DVD portions of what appears to be a single disk. There is one duplicate piece — the Chopin Scherzo no. 1 — but it is likely that the video version shows a recent performance filmed in Tokyo 18 months after the audio recording (see above). You can order from Amazon Japan. The link is given above. Aimi is said to be very pleased that her CD/DVD is at last coming out. 9 February The CD/DVD can now be ordered from Chaos — this page — but delivery time is 35-40 days and the price is £24.79. Chaos ships from Australia. |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the March issue of this online Japanese music magazine (whose name I cannot make out for sure) you will find Aimi doing a 30-second promo of her CD. Go to this page and then click on the movie symbol at the top of the left page, above the article about her. According to a Japanese fan (hashirimedes on YouTube), this — with some minor editing changes by me — is what she is saying: << Hello readers of Buraabo. I am Aimi Kobayashi. I released a CD called “Aimi Kobayashi Debut” on February 10th. I am glad if all of you listen to it because I did my very best. And I am commemorating my CD debut in Hamarikyu Asahi hall on April 3 by giving a recital. By all means please come to hear the live performance . . . I look forward to being able to meet all of you. >> |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Other information
For such an extraordinary talent, there's little information about Aimi Kobayashi on the internet. The AADGT, in full the American Association for Development of the Gifted and Talented, is Aimi’s main sponsor and manages her outside Japan. Here is the site of the AADGT. As of December 2009 her appearances in Japan are managed by To-On Artist Promotion. Aimi’s page on To-On is here. Clicking on the Concerts tab gives information about forthcoming engagements (presumably those arranged by To-On). At end 2009 Aimi also signed up with EMI Japan. Here is her artist’s page on EMI. On opening this plays a video of her performing Chopin’s Scherzo no. 1 at Merkin Hall in June 2008. On another page there are seven video clips, one of which — from when she was about 6 or 7 — has not been shown before. Aimi’s Fan Club site. In Japanese, and seemingly defunct since late 2007. You can get this translated by searching on her fan club in Google and clicking on the “Translate” link. Be warned that Japanese translates into english very poorly! PTNA: The Piano Teachers’ National Association (of Japan) has very limited information about Aimi. You have to dig through past issues of the annual newsletter, published in english. The PTNA holds the competitions in which Aimi is shown participating in many of the YouTube videos. Wikipedia: Not a great deal of information here, really, and not kept up to date, but the author of the Japanese page has been kind enough to give me a couple of links. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Acknowledgments
My thanks for help in preparing these pages to Tom Wierzbicki and Christina Shatuho. Tom is an unsung powerhouse behind Aimi, somehow finding the time from being a distinguished professor at MIT to selflessly promote her interests in various parts of the world beyond the USA. Christina (aka cristeny on YouTube) is a gifted young Russian pianist living in Estonia, but she is also a resourceful internet detective who tirelessly and generously shares all kinds of things she finds on the internet about Aimi. Without them my pages would not be what they are. I am especially indebted to Patrick Tabet, who formerly published videos of Aimi on YouTube as klingsor93 and since November 2009 as Aimiklingsor93. On top of posting a substantial proportion of the videos linked on these pages, Patrick has contributed a huge amount of background information by selflessly sharing his fund of knowledge and informed opinion, for, as many of you will know, he spent part of his career as a professional music critic with the french newspaper Le Figaro. He is also a private sponsor of Aimi. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aimi playing Chopin's 1st Impromptu as an encore at a concert in Moscow on December 24, 2006. On YouTube. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aimi in late 2009. Left: Signing programs after her recital in Nagoya, Japan, October 2009. Right: A publicity photo taken to mark the announcement of her contract with EMI Japan in December and the release of her first CD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Next page: YouTube video catalog page 1
Errors, omissions, bad links etc can be reported to me at raham [AT] btinternet [DOT] com Background motifs (tiles) by Tenkoku-Sozai AOI
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