Born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1993, Tomoki Sakata began studying the piano at the age of 5. Just a few years later he received the first prize in the Piano Teachers Competition in Japan. In 2009, at the age of only 16, he was invited for the Young Talent Program at the Liszt Competition in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and as the result of that was invited by Paul Badura Skoda for private masterclasses. A warm friendship developed between Paul Badura Skoda and Tomoki, which resulted in a ten year long coaching relationship. Tomoki was invited by Professor William Grant Naboré to attend the Lake Como piano Academy, where over a number of years he received classes from Leon Fleischer, Dimitri Bashkirov and Tamász Vásáry. He is currently finisching his studies with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover. Over the years, Tomoki received a great number of awards and prizes. Among others, he won first Prize at the Franz Liszt competition in Budapest (2016), along with 6 other awards, third prize at the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in Texas (2013), the Audience prize at the Deutsche Pianistenpreis (2018), the first Prize and the audience prize at the Kissinger Klavier Olymp, and the fourth Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium (2021) as well as a number of awards in Japan. His career brought him to play concerts in just about every city in Japan, as well as many places in Europe, the United States and Africa, where he gave concerts and recitals in such famous venues as Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Elbfilharmonie Hamburg, Salle Cortot Paris, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, as well as venues in Dallas/Fort Worth, Moscow and Morocco. As a soloist he worked together with conductors as Jean-Pascal Tortelier, Leonard Slatkin, Sascha Goetzel, János Kóvacs, Tadaaki Otaka and many others. In september 2023 Tomoki reached the eclips of his career so far, by performing all four of Rachmaninoffs piano concertos plus the Paganini Variations in one extended performance in the main auditorium of the famous Suntory Hall in Tokyo. The audience went wild after this heroic performance and the artist’s fame was once again confirmed.
TOMOKI SAKATA 