Hiroaki Ooï

Hiroaki Ooi (b. 15th December 1968) is a Japanese pianist, organist, and harpsichordist from Kyoto. He also performs on the "ondes Martenot"—an early French electronic musical instrument invented by Maurice Martenot in 1928. Ooi studied at the Hochschule der Künste Bern in Switzerland, where his primary piano pedagogue was Bruno Canino. Some of Hiroaki's teachers included András Schiff (piano) and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini (baroque organ). The pianist participated in numerous domestic and international music competitions, winning first prizes at the 30th International Gaudeamus Competition (1996) in Rotterdam and the 2000 Olivier Messiaen Competition in Paris. In August 2017, at Tokyo University of the Arts, Hiroaki Ooi performed Kaikhosru Sorabji's notorious Opus Clavicembalisticum in its entirety. He is only the fifth pianist in history who achieved that, following John Ogdon (1937—89), Geoffrey Douglas Madge (b. 1941), Jonathan Powell (2) (b. 1969), and Daan Vandewalle (b. 1968).