Minako Tsukatani - J.S.Bach: Goldberg Variations BWV.988 (2013)

The Japanese organist, Minako Tsukatani, started playing the organ while studying at the University of Fine Arts and Music of Tokyo, musicology department. She studied pipe organ under Naoko Imai, Makiko Hayashima, Jacques van Oortmerssen and the late Jean Boyer, and improvisation under Jos van der Kooy. After graduating from the University of Fine Arts and Music of Tokyo in 1995, Tsukatani continued her studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, majoring in historical organ and organ construction theory. In 2000 she was awarded the Huygens program scholarship by the Dutch government. This enabled her to study at the Conservatoire Superieure de Musique de Lyon) in 2001. In 2002 she graduated from the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In the same year she was admitted to the doctorate program for organ at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, specializing in contemporary music and improvisation. In 2004 she graduated from the Royal Conservatory, obtaining a doctorate degree as well as a soloist diploma.

In 1999 Minako Tsukatani was selected as a participant in the Alkmaar International Schnitger Organ Competition. In the same year she became the main organist of the Keizergracht Church. Since then she has been invited to and participated in many concerts and events in Norway and France. In the Netherlands she has been playing the organ in the esteemed concert series organized by the St. Bavo Church in Haarlem and the St. Laurens Church in Alkmaar. In June 2000, she performed at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. From 2004 onwards she has been invited to play at many festivals, starting with the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival. While having her base in Amsterdam, she also performed in Japan: once at the Tokyo Suntory Hall and many times at the Yokohama Kanagawa Kenmin Hall.

Having a wide repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, Minako Tsukatani is acclaimed at home and abroad with her improvisation, arrangement, composition and performance of chamber music and songs inspired by Japanese folk songs. She successfully organized and supervised “Momentum”, the concert joining gagaku (the ancient Japanese court music) and the organ. The concert was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in November 2005 as an event supported by the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands for the year of Japan-EU exchanges. In March 2006, she performed the world premiere of Haarlem Concerto ? concerto for organ and aerophone, the new piece by Piet Kee, and in September of the same year, she released her CD “Whispering Winds” in the Netherlands.