Pianist *Mari Kodama* has established an international reputation for her ability to convey a rarely heard, arresting depth of feeling coupled with her virtuosic, fluid articulation at the keyboard. Her personal style is especially evident in her performances of Mozart, Prokofiev, Ravel and Schoenberg. She has played in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United States and Japan.

The 2002/03 season marks Ms. Kodama’s fourth season of presenting the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle. Her recording of Beethoven sonatas for the Pentatone label is scheduled for release in early 2003. Future plans include performing the entire Beethoven sonata cycle in Tokyo. In previous seasons, Mari Kodama continued to perform the Beethoven cycle in Los Angeles and Pasadena as well as other recitals in California. She also toured Hawaii, presenting programs in Oahu, Kauai and in Hilo; played the Schoenberg Concerto with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Stenhammer’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, a two-piano program in Berlin with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Mozart K. 414 with the Festival Orchestra in Lockenhaus, Austria; and in Gmunden she played a Schumann Quintet with members of the Vienna Philharmonic as well as solo Beethoven sonatas.

Ms. Kodama has been heard at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Bard Music Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Ravinia Festival’s Rising Stars Series, Aspen Music Festival and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra; the Wheeling Symphony and the San Diego Chamber Symphony. She played Mozart concerti at the Midsummer Mozart Festival, Ravel’s Concerto in G Major in Tokyo, recitals in London at Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room; in Lyon, Montpellier, the Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh and Verbier Festivals and the Festival d’Evian. She has played Mozart K. 595 for Dutch Television and Radio; the Schoenberg Concerto with Bernhard Klee and the NDR Orchestra in Hannover; the Haydn D Major Concerto with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 with Kent Nagano and the Halle Orchestra. She has, on occasion, performed chamber music with Mstislav Rostropovich.

Born in Osaka, Japan, Mari Kodama moved with her family to Europe at the age of six. In 1981, she was accepted at the Conservatoire National Superieur de la Musique in Paris where she studied piano with Germaine Mounier and chamber music with Genevieve Joy-Dutilleux. She has also worked with Tatiana Nikolaeva and Alfred Brendel. Following her debut in Japan, she appeared for the first time in London with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, playing Prokofiev Concerto No. 3. She has won prizes at the international competitions of Jeunesse Musicale de Suisse, Viotti-Valsesia, Citta di Senigallia and F. Busoni in Bolzano. Her recordings include Prokofiev Concertos No. 1 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Kent Nagano conducting, on the ASV label.