The japanese pianist Eri Mantani won 2010 the second prize at the 29th “Alessandro Casagrande” International Piano Competition in Terni (the first prize was not awarded), and also received a special prize for the best interpretation of Schubert. Her interpretation of Schubert’s Sonata B-flat major was highly praised by Annarosa Taddei who was one of Alfred Cortot’s master students.

 

Eri won many national and international prizes, like the top prizes at the 4th Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Wroclaw and at the 1st Romanian Music Competition in Tokyo. She is a laureate of the 11th Franz Schubert International Piano Competition in Dortmund and the 22nd Johannes Brahms International Competition in Pörtschach. She got a diploma at the 16th Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.  

 

Since her debut recital in 2001 Eri performed regularly in solo recitals and as a soloist with numerous orchestras all over Europe and Asia. She has been invited to perform at international music festivals and concert series, e.g.; Rouen, Saintes (France), Raiding (Austria), Miyazaki (Japan), Milan, Bergamo, Caserta, Terni (Italy) and Eutin (Germany) .

In 2005 she was invited as a scholarship student to the international summer academy and concert in Cervo, Italy. The there performed masterpiece "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by J.S. Bach" by Max Reger was very well received.

In 2009 the Ferenc Liszt society demanded her to perform a concert tour in Poland. In the same year she was awarded the critic’s choice award for her recital at the Izumi hall, Osaka.

In 2015 she was awarded one of the most acclaimed japanese music awards, the "Aoyama Music Award" for her recital with works of Schubert (Impromptus) and Liszt (Sonata B minor) at the Barocksaal in Kyoto.

Her performances and recordings have been broadcast in Germany (NDR, TV.Rostock), in France (Radio Fance), in Italy (Radio 3), in Austria (Radio Stephansdom), in Poland (Polskie Radio) and in Japan (NHK-FM, MBS-Radio, Nara-TV, TV-Asahi).

 

In recent years, in addition to music festivals and recitals in major cities in Germany and Italy, she performed in Kawai concerts in Japan and Europe, and charity concerts for the German International Peace Village. Additionally, a concert featured the performance with Fortepianos.

Since 2017, she has joined the Hamburg Symphoniker Chamber Music Concert Series at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, and has often shared the stage with Adrian Iliescu , the first concertmaster of the Symphoniker, and Satoko Koike, the top of second violinists.  

 

Her first solo CD recording of works by Franz Liszt and George Enescu (sonata No.3) “East Side Rhapsody” was released in 2011 for the label of the Romanian Music Society in Japan, and in the same year she was invited to a concert tour in Romania.

In 2017, her second CD "Domenico Scarlatti Sonatas" was released by MDG (Music production Dabringhaus and Grimm), which received excellent international reviews in music magazines and radios.  

 

Born in Osaka, Eri Mantani began learning piano at the age of four. She studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku) with Prof. Yu Kakuno and the Rostock University of Music and Theatre in Germany with Prof. Bernd Zack as a scholarship student of Yamaha music foundation and Rohm music foundation. She graduated the concert exam for piano solo and received the diploma of piano chamber music.

More inspirations have been acquired in master classes of Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jörg Demus, Alexander Jenner, Arnulf von Arnim, Anne Queffélec, Henri Barda and others.

 

Eri Mantani is teaching piano at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre since 2007. She is a member of the jury at the PTNA Piano Competition which is the largest in Japan.

As well as co-founder of the public interest incorporated association "Klavierfest Berlin-Weißensee e.V.", which has organised the international piano festival "Klavierfest Berlin-Weißensee" since 2023, Eri Mantani is also the artistic director of this festival. Eri Mantani is based in Berlin.

 

Official Website　 www.erimantani.com