Jon Nakamatsu

Jon Nakamatsu is an American pianist best known for winning the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He performs widely with US orchestras and in recital, bringing a clean, lyrical approach to core Romantic and twentieth-century repertoire. Listeners will hear him take on Ravel's jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in G major with Symphony San Jose.

Nakamatsu is known for a clear, unforced sound and phrasing that favors singing lines over showy display, even in virtuosic passages. In Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, expect crisp articulation in the fast outer movements, where the piano trades quick, syncopated figures with the orchestra in a style influenced by jazz, and a slow, songlike middle movement built on a long, unbroken melody in the right hand over a gently rocking left hand accompaniment. He tends to favor clarity of texture over heavy pedaling, letting inner voices and orchestral color come through. Paired here with Daugherty's American Gothic, a orchestral tribute to American regionalist imagery, and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, a suite of musical portraits inspired by paintings, the program gives listeners a chance to hear his approach to color and narrative in music that paints pictures without words.

Jon Nakamatsu came to wide public attention in 1997 when he won the gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, a major American piano competition held every four years in Fort Worth, Texas. Notably, he arrived at that competition without a degree from a music conservatory, having studied German and education before pursuing piano more seriously. Since that win he has performed with numerous American orchestras and appeared in recital and chamber music settings across the United States and abroad.