Mona Asuka Ott

Born in Munich in 1991, Mona Asuka Ott became fascinated by music while still very young. Just four years of age, she was already allowed to play, out of competition, at a festival staged at the Munich Royal Residence. Scarcely turned eleven, she responded to an invitation to appear on television as a duettist with Marcello Viotti in Ravel’s “Ma mère l'oye” together with the Munich Radio Orchestra, a production broadcast several times over on German TV.

Entering for national and international contests, the young artist qualified for first-class prizes, frequently alongside special trophies and distinctions. These included highest-level awards conferred in the Grotrian Steinweg Competition held in Brunswick as well as in Cortemillia and Pinnerolo, Italy. She came first in the national finals of the German Jugend Musiziert Festival. In the Fourth EPTA International Piano Festival staged in 2005 in Osijek, Croatia she carried away both the first prize and special award. Challenged by much older contestants entering for the 11th International Piano Academy Competition organized in Hamamatsu, Japan in 2006, she emerged as youngest finalist. The award of the audience’s prize in the Bad Kissingen Piano Olympics was yet another feat accomplished by the young pianist in 2006.

Mona Asuka Ott began as a pupil of Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the early age of nine and has been studying with Prof. Bernd Glemser in Wuerzburg since autumn 2008. She has appeared in many German cities as well as in other European countries apart from accepting concert engagements in Japan. Her solo appearances came to include recitals given at the Ruhr Piano Festival as well as festivals at La Roque d'Anthéron, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, the Kissing Summer Festival, the Franconia Music Festival, the Brunswick Classix Festival and at Tokyo’s Nikkei Hall. These were followed by other engagements at the Munich Hercules Hall together with Peter Sadlo, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the inaugural recital at the “Next Generation III Festival” staged in Dortmund, a star gala performance relayed by German Television live from Nuremberg’s Franconia Hall.

Just turned thirteen, Mona Asuka Ott made her orchestral début at the International Piano Festival of Young Musicians in Lindau. This was the first step to a long series of orchestral engagements arriving one after another, among them appearances with the Halle State Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Hans Rotman, the Hof Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Golo Berg, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra under Ruben Gazarian, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo directed by Shizuo Z. Kuwahara and a concert tour embarked on in 2009 with the Constance Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jonathan Schiffman.

Her début recital at the Ruhr Piano Festival in 2008 unleashed outbursts of enthusiasm from concert-goers and the press alike, with tickets completely sold out within three days of release! “The young pianist responded with a performance abounding in vigour and exuberance, [...]. Despite her gripping and high-spirited approach she displayed a subtle insight into the more delicate nuances of tone combined with a natural instinct of the right tempo to adopt in each case.” This review is part of a stimulating account published in the newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung focusing on the recital given at Hohenlimburg Palace.

A CD recording of this recital has been issued by the Ruhr Piano Festival and appears together with a 2009 portrait in a supplement to the known German magazine Fono Forum.

Forthcoming commitments for 2010 include a concert tour with the Halle State Orchestra directed by Markus Poschner as well as a tour of Japan with the Constance Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Vassilis Christopoulos.

Mona Asuka Ott is a scholarship holder of the Degussa Foundation in Düsseldorf as well as the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben Foundation.

www.Mona-Asuka-Ott.com