Aimi Kobayashi.
Winner of the fourth prize in the 18th Chopin Piano Competition, Aimi Kobayashi has gained international recognition for her exceptional talent. She is considered one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation in Japan.

Aimi was born in 1995 in Ube, Japan. She started playing the piano at the age of three, made her concert debut at the age of eight, and began her international career at the age of nine. She studied with Meng-Chieh Liu at the Curtis Institute of Music.

In 2009, she won the junior section prize at the Asia-Pacific International Chopin Piano Competition in Korea. In 2011, she was awarded the gold medal at the Asia International Chopin Competition for her performance in the concerto section, and in the same year she won the Yasuko Fukuda Prize. In 2012, she won the third prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition for Young Artists.

She gave her first recital at Carnegie Hall at the Japan NYC Festival, whose musical director was Seiji Ozawa, and the following month she gave a recital at Tokyo Opera City.

She has already performed with a number of leading orchestras, both in Japan and abroad, including the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century under Frans Bruggen and the Moscow Virtuosi under Vladimir Spivakov. In Japan, he regularly performs with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic.

She has recorded works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt for Warner Classics. In 2015, she was one of ten finalists in the 17th Chopin Piano Competition, selected from 452 participants from 45 countries. In July 2019, she performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège conducted by Christian Arming. In March 2020, she performed Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under Kristiina Poska.

In October 2024, she performed Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Krzysztof Urbanski. In November 2024, she performed Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 43 with Tugan Sokhiev under the Münchner Philharmoniker.

Her most recent recording is 'Schubert' (2024) from Warner Classics.

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The Sunday Chopin Recitals in Żelazowa Wola provide an opportunity to listen to performances by the most eminent Polish and foreign pianists, world-renowned professors and winners of International Chopin Competitions. The 45-minute concerts take place during the season from May to the end of September, every Sunday at 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. In addition, the recitals at 12 p.m. on the last two Sundays of the month are broadcast on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.