Piano 4 Hands has rapidly established a reputation as one of Britain's most exciting
young piano duos and were prize winners at the Tokyo International Piano
Duo Competition in 2003 and the Schubert International Competition in Czech
Republic.
Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa made their Wigmore Hall debut in 2003 for
the Kirckman Concert Society and have given several recitals at the Purcell
Room on the South Bank to critical acclaim, including the PLG New Year
Series and Fresh Young Musician's Platform. They have performed at many
of the major concert halls around the country including Bridgewater Hall,
Manchester (for the Midday Concerts Society), St David's Hall in Cardiff,
Fairfield Halls Croydon, St George's Bristol and the Turner Sims Hall in
Southampton.
Last spring the duo gave a Wigmore Hall recital on two pianos, their programme
including the London premiere of a newly commissioned work by Nicola LeFanu,
as well as a live broadcast on Radio 3's In Tune. Other recent highlights have included concerts at St George's Bristol,
The York Spring Festival, Bury St Edmunds Festival and the Dame Myra Hess
Memorial Series in Chicago this March which was broadcast live on WFMT
Radio. Joe and Waka also perform regularly in Japan, where they gave a
highly successful debut recital at Oji Hall in Tokyo in 2005.
Piano 4 Hands has commissioned several new works from composers such as
Nicola LaFanu, Dai Fujikura, Robert Keeley and Edwin Roxburgh, whose
Homage to Debussy they have recorded for the NMC label. In 2002 they gave the first ever
performance of any of Dai Fujikura's music in Japan when they premiered
Half -Remembered City in Tokyo, whilst they will be co-commissioning a set of pieces for two
pianos from the same composer in 2007/08.
The duo recently recorded their debut CD of piano duets by Debussy which
was released on the
Quartz label last autumn.
Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa gratefully acknowledge financial support
from the PRS Foundation for New Music.
