About | Kanae Matsumoto

Kanae Matsumoto Giampietro

Praised as an “outstanding pianist...unfailingly crisp, warm and sensitive” (Showtime Magazine, Toronto), Kanae Matsumoto Giampietro is a versatile pianist, having extensively diversified her repertoire from solo, chamber to vocal music.

Kanae currently resides in New York City and works with classical singers. She is a vocal coach and artistic staff at Manhattan School of Music and a staff pianist at the Juilliard School. In 2016-2024, she was a vocal coach at the Marlena Malas’ Opera Conservatory at Chautauqua Institution. She is also a founding member of M&M Piano Duo, with Canadian pianist Martin Dubé.

Before focusing on the collaboration with singers, Kanae was a sought-after chamber musician in Los Angeles and appeared in numerous recitals and concerts including the chamber music concert series with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Society at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Highlights of her collaborative performances include the recitals with the late Jacques Israelievitch, former concert master of Toronto Symphony, performing the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas and the complete Brahms Violin and Viola Sonatas. With Mr. Israelievich, she also released a CD “French Violin Sonatas” (works by Pierné, Debussy, Poulenc, and Ravel) from the Fleur de Son Classics/Naxos label.

As a solo pianist, Kanae has performed internationally, in the United States, Italy, Germany, Russia, and Japan. She was a featured soloist at the World Design Expo at her home town Nagoya, Japan (2005). In addition to the modern piano, she is also interested in performance practice of historical instruments and recorded works by the classical and romantic composers including Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin on their period instruments in collaboration with Robert Portillo, instrument restoration specialist in Los Angeles.

Kanae is also passionate about collaborating with living composers. She has worked with many composers including John Williams, Paul Chihara, Lori Laitman, Ben Moore, and Ricky Ian Gordon.

Kanae completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music in Nagoya, Japan. To continue her studies, she moved to Los Angeles and earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of California Los Angeles. After graduation, she was invited to join the faculty of the University and taught there for 7 years. In 2013 she relocated herself to NYC. She now resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband John Matsumoto Giampietro, stage director and acting teacher, enjoying their professional and personal journeys together. Her important teachers have included Vitaly Margulis and Marlena Malas.

Updated on August 10, 2024

Curriculum Vitae

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Bio

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Supplemental documents:

Vocal

Kanae focused on vocal coaching and accompanying since 2013. Here are her activities and performances in details

Instrumental

Kanae focused on instrumental accompanying and chamber music during the years of 2006 through 2013. The main institutions she worked for are the UCLA Herp Alpert School of Music and the School of Music at Chautauqua Institution. Here is the list of her repertoire for strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and piano.