渡邊孝

Takashi Watanabe graduated from the Tokyo College of Music in piano. While there he began studying the harpsichord with Yoshio Watanabe. Following postgraduate studies in harpsichord at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, he moved to Europe in 2002 and studied harpsichord with Bob van Asperen at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and organ with Lorenzo Ghielmi at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan, graduating in 2010. He has performed around Europe with such groups as Ensemble Cordia (Stefano Veggetti), Ensemble Zefiro (Alfredo Bernardini), Imaginarium Ensemble (Enrico Onofri), and performs and records extensively as soloist and continuo player. In 2004, he formed Ensemble Ricreation d’Arcadia, which won first prize at the Premio Bonporti 2004 in Italy. His solo recordings of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Sweelinck’s keyboard works (nominated for the Record Academy Award, early music category) have been widely praised and were chosen as top recommended albums in the Record Geijutsu Magazine. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Watanabe was a member of the jury at the Premio Bonporti in 2011. Every summer he gives harpsichord masterclasses at the Academy of Early Music in Brunico in Italy. Currently he teaches harpsichord, continuo, and performance practice at the Bern University of the Arts, Switzerland. He resides in Pavia, Italy. [as of September 2024]