Japanese-born pianist Kimiko Imani made her successful debut as a soloist with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with a performance of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto  at Suntory Hall (Tokyo). Alongside solo engagements with renowned orchestras in Japan and Germany, her concert activities include regular participation at international music festivals and concert series in Europe and Asia (Tokyo Spring, SONY Music Foundation, Palau de la Música Catalana, Festival Pentecôte en Berry). Her artistic development was particularly influenced by her studies in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold under the exceptional pianist Anatol Ugorski.
Her passion and commitment have been directed towards chamber music. Particularly in the woodwind scene, she has established a considerable reputation, resulting in a range of musical projects with renowned soloists such as Emanuel Abbühl, Albrecht Mayer, Lucas Macías Navarro, Guilhaume Santana and Alexei Ogrintchouk. She also performs with the internationally successful violinist Keiko Urushihara and with string soloists from leading orchestras. Since 2011 she has performed together with bassoonist Sergio Azzolini and oboist Maurice Bourge as the Maurice Bourgue Trio, an outstanding ensemble that can be heard in numerous international concert halls and has just released its first album on Sony Classical with piano trios by J. Haydn, W. F. Bach and C. P. E. Bach.
Her resulting interest in further refining the stylistic aspects of performance of the Early Classical to Romantic repertoire on historical instruments prompted her to begin fortepiano studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Edoardo Torbianelli in 2017.
Imani currently teaches at the University of the Arts in Berlin and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, also in Berlin. Engagements at some of the world’s most important music competitions and masterclasses (including the Académie musicale de Villecroze and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival) complement her teaching activities.