
*1 May 1965
Hikaru Suzuki, born in 1965 and raised in Japan, showed an extraordinary talent for piano playing at a young age. Although she actually not liked at all the piano because of family difficulties and she had practised almost nothing, she thrilled the jury every time at the competition. At a public piano seminar, the professor from Osaka Music University told the assembled audience about Hikaru Suzuki that she was a "golden egg". Actually, she much preferred to become a sportswoman.
At a master's course at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, a professor attested to her musical expressiveness of the highest level. And he said to her that if she had practised properly in her childhood, she could have reached the top as a pianist.
After studying piano in Japan, she continued her studies at the Winterthur Conservatory and graduated with a concert diploma. She has an incredible talent for grasping notes quickly and intuitively and reflecting it. Her personal favourite is J.S. Bach.
1995-2014 she works as a piano teacher.
In 2005 she was diagnosed with a motor nerve disease (MMN) in her hands, therefore she could not perform properly as a pianist.
In 2008, she wrote her first work. It was a sudden start. She never thought she would become a composer, nor did she ever want to be a composer.
By the end of 2019, she had written about 40 works (with over 200 pieces). These include 4 trios, violin-, flute- and cello-sonatas and various piano works for solo, four hands and 2 pianos.
Since 2018, the death of her beloved dog Banon has severely slowed down her creative energy. She almost doesn't compose anymore. But now (2021) she has finally started composing something again. She had a very difficult childhood. She shows these feelings in her plays "Hishou" and "Akatsuki".
In 2020 she was invited to a retrospective concert about Thurgau composers of the last 100 years (Thurgau Mosaic).
Her music has a unique sound with beautiful melodies. A new style, but natural. Most of the time she doesn't compose, but when the music comes, it's very intense, and when she's worked for 7 hours straight, it feels like a moment. Doing this, she loses the sense of time. She often needs only a few days to write.
With the piano, she uses the whole keyboard from the highest C to the lowest A. The chords and harmonies are remarkable. The special accompaniment is unique. It is "beautiful music" in which atonal passages are also interwoven in a natural and musical way. For example, a special key change once thrilled a cellist, he asked her, "How can you find it???" She replied that she didn't know herself. For herself, it is sad that she cannot explain about it herself. And she doesn't even know how she could compose a whole work. She is the one who wants to know how she composes, how it works. What she has to do for the composition, she says herself: "I may not think anything. I just have to be very relaxed. I have to concentrate on connecting with above. And I have to firmly believe that it will come for sure. Otherwise I don't have to do anything!"
There are three patterns in the way she composes.
Ordered type: Most works are composed in this form. She imagines it for someone, approximately how many minutes it should last and with which instrument. She wishes it firmly. Then she feels it start to work above. She waits for the music to come. The waiting times vary. When it comes, and if she has enough energy and desire for it, the composing process goes very quickly.
Direct type: In this pattern, when she looks directly at a painting, she can already hear different ideas and melodies. This pattern is often completed quite quickly.
The type that comes by itself: She doesn't want it to happen, but it comes by itself. So far it's just the Concert Etudes. This is a really big, strong energy.
People say that her style is unmistakable. But the greatest thing about her music is that it is able to inspire and deeply touch concertgoers. Those who have heard it once want to hear it again and again. Young people, too. Whoever has played it once will want to play it again. Even if a work is 30 minutes long, people say it feels short.
At a symposium for new music, acquaintances of hers played the slow movement from the flute quintet.The participants were so enthusiastic that they had to play the same piece a second time.The other day we played the "Japan Scenes", which are 5 small pieces for piano 4 hd. in an old people's home for the New Year's apero. The residents were as quiet as mice and until the end of the piece the whole staff had gathered to listen. Everyone was very enthusiastic.
Her music opens the hearts.