Biography

Born in 1971 in Japan, Tamayo IKEDA began her musical studies at the age of three. She joined ‘Toho Gakuen’ in Tokyo before being admitted to the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in 1989. She obtained two First Prizes in piano and chamber music disciplines before joining the advanced cycle. 

A scholarship holder of the A.P.E.F. and Société Générale, she received valuable advice from masters such as Dimitri Bashkirov, Halina Czerny-Stefanska, and Léon Fleisher.

Her intuitive and passionate playing was rewarded with a Second Prize and the Special Claude Debussy Prize at the Yvonne Lefébure International Competition (no first prize awarded), a Special Prize (Claude Debussy) at the Porto International Competition, and the First Prize at the Francis Poulenc International Competition in 1999 (as well as the Special Casadessus Prize). 

Tamayo IKEDA has performed in Europe, Norway, Finland, Japan, Indonesia, South Africa, and the United States in prestigious venues such as Hamarikyu Hall (Tokyo) or Carnegie Hall (New York). She regularly appears on the airwaves of France-Musique and particularly with the greatest soloists or conductors such as Gérard Poulet, Régis Pasquier, Roland Daugareil, Naoto Otomo, Dominique de Williencourt, etc. 

Her discography includes a recording of works by Poulenc and Fauré. She also recorded a DVD dedicated to the works of Ravel and Stravinsky in piano four hands with the Duo YKEDA. With the latter, she recorded a Schubert disc (Warner Music) released in June 2009, and a Piano Dance disc (Harmonia Mundi) released in 2015, unanimously acclaimed by critics. Her disc dedicated to the works of Schubert-Liszt released at the end of 2022 was praised by international critics and selected among the best CDs of the year in Canada by the Textura review. She just recorded a Fauré Chopin disc on the 1905 Pleyel Piano with double escapement from the Balleron Collection restored by Sylvie Fouanon, released in October 2024 in Japan with King Records and internationally with Ulysses Arts.

She is one of the founders of the “ Musiques Festiv’ ” Festival in Entre-Deux-Mers (Gironde) and Yokohama (2006). She is also artistic director of Cercle Âme du Japon, the Paris branch of the Kyoto-based Japonisme promotion association, and organises concerts at the Villa de la Princesse de Polignac (Venice), the Banque de France and the Guimet Museum of Oriental Art (Paris). For her contribution to Japanese culture, she was selected by the Association Franco-Japonaise des Journalistes, together with Kengo Kuma and others, as one of the ‘30 people representing Japan in France’.

After teaching at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montpellier and the École Normale de Musique (Cortot), she has been a jury member of international competitions and holds the French national teaching qualification, CA, and currently is a tenured professor at Conservatoires de la Ville de Paris.