“Nobu” Fever: A Blind Pianist from Japan

by nate on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | Attraction, Entertainment, Inspiration, Life

Nobuyuki Tsujii performs at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competiton in Fort Worth, Texas on May 31, 2009

Rodger Mallison / MCT / Landov

As Nobuyuki Tsujii finished the last note of Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante by Chopin, the packed audience in Tokyo’s Kioi Hall broke into an emotional applause. Executing each piece with energy and concentration, the 21-year-old classical pianist, who has been blind since birth, mesmerized the typically reserved Tokyo crowd in a two-hour solo performance on his latest tour. Kumi Araki, a 25-year-old from downtown Toyko, gushed. “I am so moved. Before I knew it, I was standing to applaud!” she says, wiping at tears.

Japan, it seems, has got itself a case of Nobu Fever, the latest object of affection in a culture that regularly gets obsessed en masse with everything from fad diets to Haruki Murakami’s latest book. And while this kind of fame may be new for the artist, life as a concert pianist is not. Tsujii’s talent for music was discovered by his mother, when, at eight months, she says he repeatedly urged her to play a CD of Chopin’s Polonaise Op.53. Soon after, his parents gave him a toy piano, and he started lessons before he was two. At 10, he debuted on stage with a professional orchestra. Masahiro Kawakami, who taught Tsujii for 12 years, is amazed at his pupil’s unstoppable charisma. “He has a strong desire to strike a beautiful note, and this conviction that things will go well. His music has a power to make people happy.”

Backstage, Tsujii’s fans surrounded him to congratulate another great performance. Dramatically different from his stage persona, the soft-spoken and laid-back musician says, “Everywhere I go on this tour, people’s reaction is amazing.”

Tsujii hopes one day to shake the label of being Japan’s “blind” pianist. “When I was small, I realized I was blind, but at the same time I said, ‘But I can play the piano, so it’s okay.’ I’d like everyone to think that I am simply a pianist.” He’ll have his chance: As the winner of the Cliburn Competition, he is booked to perform worldwide for the next three years. “I am only at the starting line,” he says. “I’d like to become a fine musician and play the piano as long as l live.”

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