Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka

Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka (born 4 December 1976) is a German-Japanese pianist, former olympic weightlifter and powerlifter. She was born in Bonn, Germany.

Douglass-Ishizaka (known as Ishizaka) started playing the piano at age four, was a member of the Ishizaka Trio for 16 years with her brothers, and graduated from Hochschule für Musik Köln. As a solo pianist, she has performed concerts throughout Europe, North America, and Japan, as well as appearing with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Klassische Philharmonie, and the Jackson Symphony Orchestra (Michigan).

In 1998 Ishizaka was the winner of the Deutsche Musikwettbewerb (German Music Competition), along with her brothers Kiyondo Ishizaka and Danjulo Ishizaka.

Ishizaka is part of the Open Goldberg Variations, a Kickstarter-funded, and Bösendorfer-sponsored team that recorded Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations and released the score and recordings into the public domain in May, 2012.

Ishizaka's interpretation is characterised by straightforward musicianship, immaculate technical aplomb, and a warm, beautifully modulated sonority. Counterpoint passes back and forth between the hands in a conversational and judiciously balanced manner, while a strong lyrical impulse informs the cross-handed variations' rapid, bravura passages.

In November 2013 Ishizaka and Open Goldberg Project completed another Kickstarter project to fund the recording Book I of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. The new recording was released into the public domain in March, 2015.

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