Dr Ikuko Inoguchi

Overview

Dr. Ikuko Inoguchi is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, performer-scholar, and musicologist. Born in Japan she has also studied in the US and the UK. Ikuko is particularly interested in researching and performing repertoire which displays cross-cultural influences. Her imaginative concert programmes reflect her scholarly interest in different expressions of musical time and the artistic pursuit of a variety of timbre. A recital she gave in Germany was praised as “Ikuko Inoguchi —a brilliant pianist between worlds, [whose playing demonstrates] subtle sonority and fascinating colourful tones” (Der Kessener).

Ikuko’s scholarly work involves historiography, philosophical and musicological investigations of musical time and aesthetics of rhythm, and practice-based research. Her research interests include the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the music of Japanese composers, concepts of time and temporality, exoticism, and Japonisme. As a performer-scholar who has experience in different cultures and traditions, she is particularly interested in examining how cross-cultural communication and learning in music take place.

As a prize-winning concert pianist, Ikuko has performed in Europe, the US and Asia. During 2019–2020, as part of the Japanese Embassy’s “Japan-UK Season of Culture” programme, Ikuko performed a recital programme consisting of piano works inspired by Japan and Japanese culture (e.g. music and aesthetics) by European, American, and Japanese composers. This included the premiere performance of a haiku-inspired piece, Local Music for piano and harmonica, written for Ikuko by the British composer Joe Cutler. In 2013 she made her London concerto debut, performing Anton Rubinstein’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the City University Symphony Orchestra. During the pandemic, she continued performing virtual recitals, including a haiku-inspired concert in NottNoise New Music Marathon.

Ikuko is also in demand as a performer-scholar, musicologist, and performance workshop leader. She has presented a number of papers and lecture-recitals at international conferences, symposiums, and research seminars. She was an invited speaker and performer at a study day in The BBC Total Immersion: Music from Japan series, a Takemitsu Society meeting, The Contemporary Music Research Centre at the University of York, and Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music. She also coaches advanced students, including ones from the Royal Welsh Conservatoire of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music, and City, University of London.

Ikuko is currently working on a research and recording project that investigates piano works exploring various types of Japanese rhythms and expressions of time (e.g. concept of ma and jo-ha-kyū). She is also working on a research project that studies meaning and challenges in cross-cultural learning as experienced by performers and composers from various parts of the world.

After completing her initial musical training in Japan, Ikuko moved to the US and studied with the late Vitaly Margulis at UCLA, where she was inspired to pursue both an artistic and scholarly career. She completed her first doctorate (Doctor of Musical Arts) under the guidance of Andrew Cooperstock at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she received a number of scholarships and awards and worked as a collaborative pianist and Lecturer in Piano. In the UK, following a Visiting Scholar Fellowship at the Institute of Musical Research in London, she was awarded a PhD from City, University of London for her thesis discussing the relationship between performance and concepts of time in selected piano works of John Cage, George Crumb, and Tōru Takemitsu. In June 2020 she was appointed as Visiting Research Fellow at City, University of London.

Employment

• Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, City, University London, United Kingdom, June 2020 - present