- SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
Since joining forces as a professional ensemble in 2009, internationally acclaimed solo pianists EVA-MARIA ZIMMERMANN and KEISUKE NAKAGOSHI - ZOFO* - have electrified audiences from Carnegie Hall to Osaka Japan with their dazzling artistry and outside-the-box thematic programming for piano-four-hands.
One of a rare handful of professional ensembles worldwide focusing exclusively on piano duets, this prize-winning duo is rediscovering and energetically performing hidden gems of the traditional one-piano-four-hands repertoire along with a strong dedication to 20th and 21st Century works.
As innovators in the genre, ZOFO also performs heart-pumping duet arrangements of famous orchestral pieces such as Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," exploring the realms in which many composers first experienced their symphonic visions.
Since its inception three years ago, ZOFO has made some remarkable achievements:
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TWO GRAMMY NOMINATIONS: Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Producer of the Year, Classical, for their first album MIND MELD
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FIRST PLACE: 2010 Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition
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CARNEGIE HALL concert debut: May 2010
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FINALISTS: 2011 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition - only piano duo to be elevated to the final round
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MULTI-DISC RECORDING CONTRACT with Grammy Award winning Sono Luminus Records
Eva and Keisuke are blazing a bold new path for one-piano-four-hands ensembles by commissioning and performing new duet works each year, including their first major commissions from acclaimed composers Gabriela Lena Frank and Allen Shawn. Based in San Francisco, California, ZOFO is a fiscally sponsored Affiliate of The San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music.
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to help fund ZOFO's commissioning projects, please CLICK
* The name ZOFO is an acronym for "20 Finger Orchestra," with "ZO" representing the number 20, and FO "Finger Orchestra."
Website design: Ellen Beveridge, e.b.artists