Hiroaki Takenouchi was born in Japan but is now based in London, where he came in 1997 to study piano with Yonty Solomon and Andrew Ball, composition with Edwin Roxburgh and fortepiano with David Ward at the Royal College of Music. On completion of his studies, he received the RCM’s The Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl presented by HRH The Prince of Wales.  From 2007 to 2009, he was a Constant & Kit Lambert Junior Fellow (RCM) supported by the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

As a soloist, he has appeared on many concert platforms including the Wigmore Hall, Tokyo Opera City, the South Bank Centre, the Fairfield Halls, Hamburg Laeiszhalle and Steinway Halls in London, Hamburg and Tokyo.  He has also performed at festivals in Bath, Cheltenham and Salzburg and has given recitals in the UK, Japan, Austria, Germany, Portugal and Italy.  He is an active chamber musician in an extensive range of work, working with such eminent artists as Raphael Wallfisch and Tara Helen O’Connor.  In the summer of 2010, he returned to join the summer masterclass at the Banff Centre (Canada) as a collaborative pianist, and gave piano masterclasses at the Poros International Piano Academy, Greece.  In 2010, he appeared for the second time in the Husum “Rarities of Piano Repertoire” Festival in Germany to great critical acclaim.  He was featured as a pianist on a BBC Four documentary on Sir Hubert Parry, The Prince and the Composer in May 2011.

Takenouchi’s discography includes the world première recordings of works by James Dillon (with Noriko Kawai, NMC), Edwin Roxburgh (NMC) and Jeremy Dale Roberts (LORELT), as well as a debut solo CD Cosmos Haptic: Contemporary Piano Music from Japan (LORELT), and most recently Husum Festival Highlights 2011 (Danacord).  In 2011 he will record two further CDs, firstly Delius’s orchestral works arranged for two pianos by various contemporaries (Somm Records), and piano concertos by Sherwood, Catoire and Collingwood with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Dutton Epoch).

Takenouchi has worked with many leading musicians such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Emanuel Ax, Imogen Cooper, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Robert Levin, Sir Roger Norrington and Howard Shelley.