Kiyoko Tanaka

Kiyoko Tanaka (; February 5, 1932 [ Shōwa 7] – February 26, 1996 [ Heisei 8]) was a Japanese pianist and teacher. She was the first Japanese musician to take a leading prize at a major international competition, sharing second prize with Ingrid Haebler at the Geneva International Music Competition in 1952. She went on to become the first Japanese prizewinner at both the Long-Thibaud Competition in 1953 and the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1955. It was the first time that a Japanese musician had taken a leading prize at a major international competition, and the result was reported in Japan as a landmark for the country's musical life. again the first Japanese competitor to be placed. becoming the first Japanese pianist to win a prize there. Japanese media hailed her prizewinning appearance at the competition as a major first for the nation, but incorrectly described her as the first Japanese to have entered the competition at all, despite the fact that Chieko Hara, and Miwa Kai had competed eighteen years earlier at the II International Chopin Piano Competition in 1937. She remained exceptionally popular at home, in some seasons giving as many as 120 concerts a year in Japan alone. one critic wrote that her manner of interpretation came closest to the French performing ideal represented by Monique Haas. She returned some years later with a recital of Couperin, Rameau, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel, and her performance of Saint-Saëns's Fifth Piano Concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic was long remembered there.