Nobuyuki Tsujii

Nobuyuki Tsujii (辻井 伸行) (also known as Nobu Tsujii) is a Japanese pianist and composer.

He was born blind due to microphthalmia.

Tsujii performs extensively, with a large number of conductors and orchestras, and has received critical acclaim for his unique techniques for learning music and performing with an orchestra while being unable to see.

Nobuyuki Tsujii was born blind due to microphthalmia.

From an early age, he exhibited exceptional talent and musical ability.

At age two, he began to play "Do Re Mi" on a toy piano after hearing his mother hum the tune.

He began formal piano study at the age of four.

In 1995, at age seven, Tsujii won the first prize at the All Japan Music of Blind Students by the Tokyo Helen Keller Association.

In 1998, at age ten, he debuted with the Century Orchestra, Osaka.

He gave his first piano recital in the small hall of Tokyo's Suntory Hall at age 12.

Subsequently, he made his overseas debut with performances in the United States, France, and Russia.

In October 2005, he reached the semifinal and received the Critics’ Award at the 15th International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition held in Warsaw, Poland.

In April 2007, Tsujii entered Ueno Gakuen University majoring in music performance in piano, graduating in March 2011.

Tsujii competed in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and tied for the gold medal with Haochen Zhang.

He was also awarded the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the best performance of a new work.

He played all twelve of Frédéric Chopin's Études (Op. 10) as part of his performance in the preliminaries.

Tsujii was one of the competitors prominently featured in the Peter Rosen documentary film about the 2009 Van Cliburn competition, A Surprise in Texas, which was first broadcast on PBS TV in 2010.

In addition to being a pianist, Tsujii is a composer.

At age 12, he performed his own composition "Street Corner of Vienna".

He has since released numerous albums of his own compositions.

A 2009 Time article explains: "Certainly, being blind hasn't made it easy. Tsujii can use Braille music scores to learn new pieces, but this kind of translation is usually done by volunteers. Because demand is so low, the variety of scores available does not meet the needs of a professional performer, so Tsujii has devised his own method. A team of pianists records scores along with specific codes and instructions written by composers, which Tsujii listens to and practices until he learns and perfects each piece."

He is also a film music composer and the 2011 recipient of the Japan Film Critics Award for Film Music.

On November 10, 2011, Tsujii made his debut in the main hall (Isaac Stern Auditorium) at Carnegie Hall in New York, as part of the Keyboard Virtuosos II series.

Tsujii said in a 2011 interview, "I learn pieces by listening, but it doesn't mean I'm copying CDs or another person's interpretation. I ask my assistants to make a special cassette tape for me. They split the piece into small sections, such as several bars, and record it (one hand at a time). I call these tapes 'music sheets for ears.' It takes me a few days to complete a short piece, but it takes one month to complete a big sonata or concerto."

Tsujii debuted at the BBC Proms on July 16, 2013, with a performance with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Juanjo Mena.

Tsujii is featured in a 2013 English textbook for high schools in Japan.

A 2014 film Touching the Sound, also by Peter Rosen, documents Tsujii's life from birth to his 2011 Carnegie Hall debut, including footage of his visit to the region in Japan that suffered the devastating aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

He won the 1st Prize at the InterArtia 2015 international competition by the International Art Society in Volos, Greece.

Tsujii learns new musical works strictly by ear.

In 2017, a reporter from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Monique Schafter, asked Tsujii "How do you stay in time when you can't see the conductor?"

The pianist replied: " By listening to the conductor's breath and also sensing what's happening around me."

The late conductor Bramwell Tovey commented: "He must have very acute hearing, I'm sure."

At a 2023 BBC Proms concert, BBC Radio 3 narrator Martin Handley asked conductor Domingo Hindoyan whether he has to adjust to Tsujii's blindness in any way.

Hindoyan replied, "I don't do anything different, absolutely not anything. We worked as I'd work with any soloist. And, probably the fact that he has a special way to learn pieces -- he learns them in a way that is so logical, and he is extremely sensitive. So, he really feels every instrument and every breath from myself, from the concert master and from the orchestra. It's just like he understands the piece from the very soul of it, from very deep. It's really fantastic."

Tsujii has an extensive discography.

Following is a list of his CDs and DVDs, most recent first:

Tsujii has performed with numerous orchestras under the baton of many conductors, both in Japan and abroad.

Conductors that he performed with in recent years include:

Tsujii has also performed with the Takács Quartet, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Piano concertos that Tsujii has performed include Piano Concerto No. 1 (Beethoven), Piano Concerto No. 2 (Beethoven), Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven), Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven), Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven), Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky), Piano Concerto No. 3 (Prokofiev), Piano Concerto (Grieg), Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff), Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff), Piano Concerto No. 20 (Mozart), Piano Concerto No. 21 (Mozart), Piano Concerto No. 26 (Mozart), Piano Concerto No. 27 (Mozart), Piano Concerto No. 1 (Chopin), Piano Concerto No. 2 (Chopin), Piano Concerto in G (Ravel), Piano Concerto No. 1 (Liszt), Piano Concerto No. 1 (Shostakovich), Piano Concerto No. 2 (Shostakovich), Piano Concerto (Schumann) and Piano Concerto for Nobuuiki Tsujii by Shigeaki Saegusa.