Hayato Sumino, pianist

Taking the concert world by storm, pianist and composer Hayato Sumino breathes new life into the term virtuoso. An exclusive Sony Classical recording artist, Artist Ambassador for Apple Music Classical, Steinway Artist, and CASIO Ambassador, Hayato continues to forge his own path in the arts.

His dynamism and creativity are the building blocks of his astonishing online presence—boasting over 1.3 million YouTube followers and 180 million views on the channel/pseudonym “Cateen”—and his passion and spontaneity draw his fans to the concert hall, regularly selling out shows from Tokyo to London to Chicago to Vancouver, with lines out the door for Hayato’s autograph. His 2022 debut album Hayatosm featured music by Chopin, Liszt, and his own compositions, and worldwide success lead to Digital Journal’s recognition in “Best Classical Albums for 2020.” His debut album with Sony Classical is set for release this fall and includes works by Bach, Debussy, Fauré, and Hayato’s own arrangement of Ravel’s Bolero.

His 2024 debut at Royal Albert Hall—where Hayato performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra—created a media frenzy. “Something truly unforgettable was created by Hayato Sumino when he made his debut on the piano world’s biggest stage” (Classic FM). In the summer, an extensive sold-out 24-recital tour of Japan culminated in a celebration for Hayato’s July 14 birthday at Budokan (Tokyo), where he performed for more than 13,000 fans.

He continues expanding his international profile with debuts at the Rheingau Musik Festival in Germany, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, and the Ravinia Festival where he performs Chopin with Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Hayato is regularly featured with leading orchestras worldwide, including the Hamburg, Polish National Radio, and NHK Symphony Orchestras, the Tokyo, Japan, Kansai, and Osaka Philharmonics, the Pacific Philharmonia Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and many more.

Quickly becoming one of the most in-demand pianists of his generation, Hayato’s 2024/25 season commences with an 11-concert tour as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26 (“Coronation”) with Marin Alsop and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Next a series of debuts across many of Europe’s finest concert halls, including the Berlin Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich, Munich Prinzregententheater, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, and the Liederhalle Stuttgart. Under the baton of legendary film composer Maestro Joe Hisaishi, Hayato returns as soloist with the New Japan Philharmonic to perform Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie.

His unique style blends classical virtuoso tradition with an arranger’s ear and breathtaking improvisational skills, allowing Hayato to share not only classical masterworks, but also his original compositions and arrangements with audiences across the globe. In 2018, he won the Grand Prix at the PTNA Piano Competition, and shortly after in 2020, while completing his Master of Engineering degree, he was recognized with the University of Tokyo’s President’s Award for his exceptional achievements both in music and in academics.

Continuing a long series of accolades for his fresh and innovative approach to music, Hayato was featured on Forbes Japan’s “30 under 30” list in 2023, which recognizes “young entrepreneurs, leaders and trailblazers” who are spearheading “the transformation of industries and finding innovative ways to navigate new business realities.”

Note: Hayato Sumino’s concert on Friday, October 24th is a ticketed event that is open to the general public as part of the Philip Lorenz International Keyboard Concerts Series.  All 2025 CAPMT State Conference attendees receive free admission to this concert. While seating is guaranteed, seats are not assigned and selection will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Availability of preferred seats may be limited as the concert start time approaches.

2025–2026 CAPMT Teacher of the Year

Jon Nakamatsu

Now in his third decade of touring worldwide, American pianist Jon Nakamatsu continues to draw critical and public acclaim for his intensity, elegance and electrifying solo, concerto and chamber music performances.  Catapulted to international attention in 1997 as the Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—the only American to achieve this distinction since 1981—Mr. Nakamatsu subsequently developed a multi-faceted career that encompasses recording, education, arts administration and public speaking in addition to his vast concert schedule.

Mr. Nakamatsu has been a guest soloist with over 150 orchestras worldwide, including those of Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Florence, Los Angeles, Milan, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo and Vancouver.  He has worked with such esteemed conductors as Marin Alsop, Sergiu Comissiona, James Conlon, Philippe Entremont, Hans Graf, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Gerard Schwarz, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Michael Tilson Thomas and Osmo Vänskä. 

As a recitalist, Mr. Nakamatsu has appeared in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Musée d’Orsay and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and in major centers such as Boston, Chicago, Houston, London, Milan, Munich, Prague, Singapore, Tokyo, Warsaw and Zurich.  In Beijing he has been heard at the Theater of the Forbidden City, the Great Hall of the People, China Conservatory, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts.  His numerous summer engagements included appearances at the Aspen, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Vail, Wolftrap, Colorado, Brevard, Britt, Colorado College, Evian, Interlochen, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Santa Fe and Sun Valley festivals.  In 2025 he will participate in an extended residency at the Bowdoin Festival in Maine and return to the Chautauqua Institution in New York where he served as Artist in Residence from 2018 to 2023.  In 2025 Mr. Nakamatsu will also serve on the juries of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the United States Chopin Piano Competition.

Post-Pandemic, Mr. Nakamatsu returned to live performances in 2021 throughout the United States and in Europe.  Between 2020 and the spring of 2021, he was engaged in a myriad of online events including recording, masterclasses and virtual interviews and lectures for organizations such as the Chautauqua Institution Piano Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, the Van Cliburn Foundation and the Chopin Foundation of the United States.  In collaboration with clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu also produced and curated an online series of interviews and historical performances taken from the archives of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, where he and Mr. Manasse have served as Artistic Directors since 2007.

With clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu tours as a member of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo.  Following its Boston debut in 2004, the Duo released its first CD for harmonia mundi usa (Brahms Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano) which received the highest praise from The New York Times Classical Music Editor James Oestreich, who named it among the “Best of the Year” for 2008.   A frequent chamber musician, Mr. Nakamatsu has collaborated repeatedly with ensembles such as the Emerson, Escher, Jupiter, Miró, Modigliani, Prazak, St. Lawrence, Tokyo and Ying string quartets, the Imani Winds and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet with whom he made multiple tours beginning in 2000.

Mr. Nakamatsu’s 13 CDs recorded for harmonia mundi usa have garnered extraordinary critical praise.  An all-Gershwin recording with Jeff Tyzik and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F remained in the top echelons of Billboard’s classical charts for over six months.  Other acclaimed discs include the recording premiere of Lukas Foss’ first Piano Concerto with Carl St. Clair and the Pacific Symphony, the Brahms Piano Quintet with the Tokyo String Quartet in the quartet’s final recording as an ensemble, and a solo recording including Robert Schumann’s Second Piano Sonata whose YouTube posting has garnered over 800K hits. 

Mr. Nakamatsu has been profiled extensively in print, radio, television and online.  He has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, in Readers Digest magazine and recently on Live from Here! with Chris Thile.  In 1999, Mr. Nakamatsu performed at the White House at the special invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton.  He has also performed for the United States Mayor’s Convention in San Francisco and in 2001 was the featured guest artist during the opening and dedication of the Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II in Washington DC.  

A former high school teacher of German with no formal conservatory training, Mr. Nakamatsu studied privately with Marina Derryberry for over 20 years beginning at the age of six; worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel since the age of 9; and trained for 10 years in composition, theory and orchestration with Dr. Leonard Stein of the University of Southern California’s Schoenberg Institute.  Mr. Nakamatsu holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University in German Studies and secondary education.  In 2015, he joined the piano faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and in 2023 the Department of Music at Stanford University as a Visiting Artist.  He lives in the Bay Area with his wife Kathy and young son Gavin.