Biography

Megumi Tanno was born in 1978 in Chiba, Japan. At the age of 5, she began playing the piano. After her Yamaha studies in 1991, Ms. Tanno enrolled at the Senzoku College of Music’s Junior High School Music Department where she studied piano with Yayoi Mikame, viola with Tadashi Itoh and music theory with Makoto Shinohara. During her studies, she became interested in accompanying German Lieder and in Orchestra Studies. This led Ms. Tanno to enroll at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Tokyo-Geidai) in 1997, where she majored in musicology with Eizaburo Tsuchida. She studied piano with Takahiro Seki and singing with Chieko Teratani. At the same time, Ms. Tanno was also keen to gain a knowledge of ethnomusicology, especially Asian music such as gamelan, sitar, gagaku, and shamisen, all of which she learned to play at Tokyo-Geidai. Such unique experiences have inspired her perspective in classical music. 

The year 1999 was very important for Ms. Tanno, for it was then that she met Yoshiko Kojima, who gave her a crucial direction for the fortepiano. After she graduated from Tokyo-Geidai in 2001, Ms. Tanno made her decision to study with Bart van Oort at the Royal Conservatory The Hague in The Netherlands. Since 2001, she majored in fortepiano in the Early Music Department and received her Master’s degree in 2007. 

Between 2004 and 2007, she also studied with Stanley Hoogland. In 2005 the Royal Conservatory enabled Ms. Tanno to study at the Cornell University Summer Course (USA) with Malcolm Bilson, Andrew Willis and David Breitman.  

Megumi Tanno has taken part in prestigious international early music competitions. She was a semi-finalist and received Honorable Mention at the Brugge International Early Music Competition (BE) in 2007 and she won the Accompanist Prize at the John Kerr Award (UK) with Angelique Pourreyron in 2008. Megumi Tanno and Antonio Piricone as “Tempo Rubato” (fortepiano duet) won First Prize at the Van Wassenaer Concours Amsterdam (NL) in 2009, which was broadcasted on Radio 4 (NL). 

Ms. Tanno has also been invited to perform at international early music festivals. She has performed Fringe concerts at the International Early Music Festival Utrecht (NL) from 2003-07, and at the International Early Music Festival Barcelone (ES) in 2004. She also performed at the International Early Music Festival “Hokutopia” (JP) with Elizabeth Dobbin (soprano) in 2007 and with Antonio Piricone (fortepiano) in 2008.   

In 2010, Ms. Tanno’s achievements led to performing throughout Europe and Japan. She has been offered to perform more than 30 concerts this year from Stichting Musicians Worldwide (NL). In addition, she has been working with Josetxu Obregon (cello) who is the director of La Ritirata and with Barok Opera Amsterdam (NL). In October, “Tempo Rubato” will give a Benelux Tour as the winner of the 2009 Van Wassenaer Concours.