About Nobuko Imai

With her exceptional talent, musical integrity, and charisma, Nobuko Imai is considered to be one of the most outstanding violist of our time. 

After finishing her studies at the Toho School of Music, Yale University and the Juilliard School, she won the highest prizes at both the prestigious international competition in Munich and Geneva. Formerly a member of the esteemed Vermeer Quartet, Ms. Imai now combines a distinguished international solo career. She has appeared with many of the wolrd’s prestigious orchestras such as Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London, Boston, and Chicago Symphonies, among many others. 

A keen chamber musician, Ms. Imai has often performed with world’s renowned artists including Gidon Kremer, Midori, Yo Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Martha Argerich, and Andràs Schiff. From 2003 to 2020,  Nobuko Imai was founding member of the acclaimed Michelangelo String Quartet. She is also a frequent guest at numerous world’s most distinguished music festivals, including Marlboro, Pablo Casals in Prado, Ravinia, and Verbier.

Nobuko Imai has dedicated a large part of her artistic activities to explore the diverse potential of the viola. In 1995/1996 she was artistic director of three Hindemith Festivals in London, New York, and Tokyo. She is the funder of the annual “Viola Space” project which is dedicated to “celebrating the viola, introducing outstanding works and new works for viola”. And also, since 2009, the Tokyo International Viola Competition is held every three years as part of the Viola Space. Next year the Viola Space will see its 29th edition under the co-direction of Ms. Imai and Antoine Tamestit who serves as Programming Director since 2013. She is also keen to expand the viola repertoire and has given a number of first performances of the composers such as Toru Takemitsu, Toshio Hosokawa, Ichiro Nodaira, Michael Tippett, among many others. From 2011 until 2021, she was the music adviser of the Phoenix Hall in Osaka. 

An impressive discography of over 40 CDs shows Nobuko Imai’s recordings for prestigious labels such as Philippe, BIS, Deutsche Grammophone. 

Her many prizes include the Avon Arts Award, the Education Minister’s Art Prize for Music awarded by the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs, the Mobil Prize, the Suntory Music Prize, and the Mainichi Art Prize. Ms. Imai received the Purple Ribbon Medal and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette from the Japanese government.

Ms. Imai is a professor at Amsterdam Conservatory, Kronberg International Academy, and Queen Sofia College of Music in Madrid. She is also a professor extraordinarius at  Ueno Gakuen  University in Tokyo and a guest professor at Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.