Pianist Kyohei Sorita, whose passionate performance style is rapidly gaining popularity, has been on a national tour covering 19 cities since July, performing three major Beethoven sonatas: "Pathetique," "Moonlight" and "Appassionata." Listening to his interpretation of Beethoven will probably change the audience's image of the 24-year-old as simply a "technical" performer.
Sorita has already performed with major orchestras in Tokyo, including the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra with which he performed Rachmaninoff in one of its subscription series in 2015. Last year, his nationwide tour of 13 concerts sold out, an achievement that added to his reputation as an incredibly bright new talent.
He creates dramatic sounds, facing the keyboard as if challenging it, and continually electrifies the audience.
"I've never, ever felt that I'm a technically skilled performer," Sorita said surprisingly. "On the contrary, I like quiet pieces that express themselves slowly."
As a boy, Sorita took piano lessons, but he was crazy about playing soccer. He gave up his dream of becoming a professional soccer player after suffering a bone fracture during a game when he was in the fifth grade.
At the music school he was attending, his teacher let him play the piano any way he wanted, including playing pieces that were performed by the protagonist of "Nodame Cantabile," a popular manga featuring students at a music college.
From these experiences, Sorita learned that music is supposed to be expressed freely by a performer -- a conviction that has supported him as a pianist to this day.
Around that time, he had the opportunity to conduct an orchestra at a seminar.
"I was only 12 years old and so little. But as soon as I gave them a sign, the brass instruments and timpani played on cue in unison," he said. "I was so moved. Even today, I can't forget it."
After that, he had a new dream of becoming a conductor. To make this dream come true, he started to play the piano seriously, considering that playing a particular musical instrument well would be advantageous to becoming a conductor.
During his high school days, Sorita won first prize at the piano section of the Music Competition of Japan.
He later got into the Moscow State Conservatory, a prestigious music academy in Russia, with a top score.
Since last year, Sorita has studied at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Poland.
"I wanted to learn Chopin as well, after mainly studying Russian music for three years in Moscow," he said.
The next International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition will be held in 2020.
"I'm preparing [for the competition], but I don't know whether I'll enter it," he said. "Whether I win or am eliminated in the preliminary round, an enormous wall [psychological challenge] will be built inside me. If I become confident that I can overcome it, I will participate."
For the past three years, he had considered playing the three major Beethoven sonatas in concert.
"As I've mainly played technically challenging pieces, people may end up labeling me a 'technical pianist' in three years' time or so. That's something I'm worried about," Sorita said. "This year, I want to push myself as a 'classical' pianist."
The three Beethoven sonatas included in his program are part of the classical repertoire, as it were.
"Playing [these sonatas] means all the more to me because doing so is taking on the well-known classics," Sorita said. "I'll play the pieces 19 times during the tour, and then I'll be able to take the next step forward."
Sorita also doesn't want to be identified as a "pianist."
"I don't want to be limited just to the piano," he said. "I want to be a conductor, too. I aim to be acknowledged as a 'musician' in the future."
His latest album released in July features the three Beethoven sonatas.
For more information, visit soritakyohei.com.
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