Aya Okuyama

Aya Okuyama (b. 1973, Kamakura, Japan) is a French pianist and pianofortist, wife of harpsichord maker and fortepiano restorer Olivier Fadini (b. 1968). She specializes in performing on historical pianos, particularly Pleyel et Cie instruments of "Chopin's period" between 1831 and 1849, as well as Érard, Graf, Rosenberger, Streicher, and other antique pianos. Okuyama began playing piano at three, later relocating to France and pursuing studies under Brigitte Engerer, Michel Béroff, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard at Conservatoire National Supérieur De Musique Et De Danse De Paris. Aya earned her Higher Training Diploma in piano and chamber music in 1999, continuing her education at CNR Paris with Patrick Cohen and graduating in 2002 with a Higher Diploma in fortepiano. As a concert pianist, Aya Okuyama toured extensively across Europe and Japan, performing at such prestigious venues as Cité de la Musique, l'Archipel, Amphithéâtre Richelieu de la Sorbonne, Chateau de Champs-sur-Marne, and Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall, and sharing the stage with Le Cercle De L'Harmonie ensemble and many prominent soloists, including violinists Miloš Valent, Julien Chauvin, Fabien Roussel, and Sharman Plesner, harpist Catherine Michel, gambist Jérôme Hantaï, tenor Cyrille Dubois, and cellist Christophe Coin. In June 2007, she performed at the 75th anniversary of Museum Celda de Frédéric Chopin y George Sand in Valldemossa, Spain, performing on the 1838 Pleyel pianino, identical to the instrument that Frédéric Chopin used to record his iconic "24 Preludes," Op. 28. Okuyama gave the world premiere of J. N. Hummel's works on period instruments with the Solamente Naturali ensemble, released on Brilliant Classics.