Blind Pianist Wows Cliburn Audiences
Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Joyce Marshall
Nobuyuki Tsujii, right, was named one of the semifinalists of the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Translator Kay Nakamoto is at left. Star-Telegram/Joyce Marshall.
With a dramatic bow of pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii's head, rich sounds of the piano, violins, cello and viola broke the concert hall silence as he and a string quartet played Schumann's Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44.
Just before the final note, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition audience began clapping. The standing ovation Friday for the 20-year-old from Japan lasted nearly five minutes.
But not everyone may have known its significance. Tsujii was born blind and had to figure out how to cue the other musicians. That was especially important with the Schumann piece, because all instruments must start playing simultaneously in the first movement.
After his first rehearsal last week with the Takacs Quartet from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Tsujii said he decided to nod his head as a cue.
He had only played with a chamber music group once before.
But Tsujii says his blindness has not limited his playing opportunities and that he doesn't want to be known as the pianist who cannot see.
He says the most important objective is that the audience be moved.
The six Cliburn finalists will be announced Sunday night.
