Chiharu Sai

Chiharu Sai performs widely as a soloist and chamber musician, both in Japan and the United States. Selected by Mainichi Shimbun,Japans leading newspaper, as one of The One Hundred People in Tokyo to Represent the 21st Century,” Sai was featured in a concert entitled The Great Young Classical Musicians from China, Korea, and Japan at Tokyo' s 2001 Summer Music and International Arts Festival.Her recent sold-out recital at Tokyo's Izumi Concert Hall received enthusiastic critical acclaim in the Korea Journal.Sai has donated the proceeds from a subsequent sold-out performance at the Parthenon Tama Recital hall to Tokyo’s Long-Legged Uncle Foundation, which supports the education of young people in financial need.In recognition of the extraordinary quality of her artistry, she has been engaged to give a recital at Tokyo's renowned Opera City Hall in April of 2005.

In the United States, Sai has performed at the San Francisco Music Festival as well as in concert series at the St. Paul Festival of the Arts and the Museum of the American Pianos. She is featured annually in a concert series at the Donnell Library Center of the New York Public Library. In 2002, she made her New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall (Weill), as a winner of the Artist International Special Presentation Award. The New York Concert Review described her playing as “dazzling, high-spirited.....with great brilliance”. On the same program, “Sai played both the D major and E-flat Prelude by Rachmaninoff exquisitely.” In April of 2006 at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Sai will appear as a soloist to perform Mozart’s piano concertos KV414 and KV415 with the Amadeus String Quartet as a part of the celebration for the 250th Anniversary of Mozart.

In May of 2003, Sai has received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and currently resides in New York City.

"dazzling, high-spirited.....with great brilliance" "Sai played both the D major and E-flat Prelude by Rachmaninoff exquisitely"

The New York Concert Review

"The deep tone of her piano playing filled the hall........, leaving the audience with much warmth" - OCS News Leading Japanese Publication in America

"a marvelously talented performer" "She played a most difficult and rewarding program of the masters magnificently"

Ouida Blatt Mintz Author of "My Friend Lenny", a memoir about Leonard Bernstein