Megumi
 Sano

Artistic Career

Born in Nagoya, Japan, Megumi Sano began to play the piano at the age of 2 1/2 and by 9 had already started composing her own pieces.

 At the age of 15, she was accepted into the Toho-Gakuen academy of music in Tokyo, where she was tutored by Professor Matsuoka.

 Between 1980 and 1984, some of her compositions were published, and premières were performed of her piano trios and a string quartet.

 In 1985, her music career then took her to Europe where she studied at the Brussels Conservatory under Professor D. Blumenthal and Professor A. De Groote. After only a year, she won first prize with distinction in both the soloist and chamber music categories.

During her studies, Megumi was successful in several competitions, including the Japanese National Music Competition (1981 and '82), the Brussels "Tenuto" competition, and the International Piano Competition in Senigallia, Italy.

 From 1989 - 91, Megumi studied under Professor P. Gililov at the Cologne Music Academy.

 A year later she was awarded a diploma at the "Maria Canals" international piano competition in Barcelona, Spain.

 During her final year at the academy in Cologne,  she also met A. Esterhazy, one of Heinrich Neuhaus's last pupils, from whom she continued to be tutored until passing the concert exam in 1994.

Since her début in Japan in 1990, Megumi Sano has regularly played in recitals and with significant orchestras in Tokyo and Nagoya, whose concerts have been broadcast on radio and television. Her performance in the Nagoya Concert Hall was praised as the "best and most impressive piano concert of 1997", selected from 105 concerts. And she played as “Echo 1998” her piano concert.

In Year 2000 she got the „Nagoya-shimin-Festival-Award 2000“ for her piano concert, on which she played pieces from Adolf Jensen and Schumann.

Since December 2000 her CD “Adolf Jensen Klavierwerke” is on the market.
A censor mentioned approvingly "she achieves her goal by meticulous phrasing and thereby the innermost nature of the works.”

As well as playing in concerts in Germany, Megumi Sano also teaches at various musical schools in her current home region of Cologne.