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The Japanese-American harpsichordist, Aya Hamada, made her debut with the Kobe Chamber Orchestra at the age of 17. Since moving to the USA, she has obtained her Master of Music degree in Harpsichord (2004), and her Graduate Diploma in the inaugural class of Historical Performance from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City (2011), where she was awarded the Irene Diamond Fellowship and the Heward Memorial Scholarship. Her teachers have included Ruth Laredo, Richard Contiguglia, German Diez, Louis Bagger and Lionel Party. She also studied under Kenneth Weiss in New York and Skip Sempé in Paris, and has received additional coaching from Pierre Hantaï and Christophe Rousset. She won first prize in the London Music Festival Competition and second prize in the Josef Hofmann Piano Competition, and was also a winner of the Manhattan School of Music Concerto Competition and the Artists International Auditions, and is a laureate of the Royaumont Foundation (France).
Praised for her “graceful” (The New York Times) performance, Aya Hamada is an active recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and continuo player. Currently she plays principal harpsichord for the New York Symphonic Ensemble and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and serves as organist at L’Église Française du Saint Esprit. She has given numerous recitals and chamber music concerts in major venues throughout in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Japan, including a recital at the Peñíscola International Festival of Medieval and Baroque Music, Music Before 1800 (New York), Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), Harpsichord Heaven at the Flint collection (Wilmington), and at the International Conference of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America (Montreal).
Aya Hamada has made over three dozen appearances as concerto soloist on four continents. She has performed with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Berkshire Opera Company, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra (Japan), Sinfonietta Cracovia (Poland), Juilliard415, Juilliard Symphony, appearing under conductors such as Jordi Savall, Nicholas McGegan, Harry Bicket and Masaaki Suzuki.
The New York Times proclaimed “Ms. Hamada gave a deft account of Handel’s Concerto” about her concerto performance with conductor William Christie in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. She “defined the torrent of notes beautifully for the ear, while never sacrificing virtuosity; her illuminating playing drew well-deserved cheers” (The Columbus Dispatch). Others have praised her “flawless technique” (The Boston Globe), and “superb command of the harpsichord” (The Springfield Republican). She premiered Virginal by Harold Meltzer with the New Juilliard Ensemble in 2010.
Her debut album “Jacques Duphly: Pièces de clavecin” was chosen as “Recording of the Month” in The Music Web International (July 2015) and The Record Geijutsu Magazine (June 2015), and received highly favorable reviews in The Magazine of Early Music America (Fall 2015), American Record Guide (Nov/Dec 2015), The Fanfare Magazine (Nov/Dec 2015) and Keyboard Perspective (2015). She currently resides in New York City. |
