Jon Nakamatsu

Mr. Nakamatsu maintains a nearly incessant touring schedule, performing throughout the US and abroad. He has worked with many of today’s leading conductors, and has appeared in recital and chamber collaborations in festivals and in music centers worldwide. Together with the renowned clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu regularly tours as a member of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. The Duo also serves as Artistic Directors of the esteemed Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival which was founded by pianist Samuel Sanders in 1979.

Named Debut Artist of the year by NPR’s Performance Today, Mr. Nakamatsu has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, Reader’s Digest and is featured in Playing with Fire, a documentary about the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa, which has released nine CDs to great critical acclaim. His recent recording of Gershwin’s Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue with the Rochester Philharmonic remained on Billboard’s classical charts for nearly six months, topping out at Number 3. Most recently, Mr. Nakamatsu’s CD of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas with clarinetist Jon Manasse was selected by the New York Times as one of its top classical recordings for 2008.

Jon Nakamatsu has studied privately with Marina Derryberry since the age of six, has worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, and studied composition and theory with Dr. Leonard Stein of the Schoenberg Institute at the University of Southern California. A former high school German teacher, Mr. Nakamatsu is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a bachelor’s degree in German Studies and a master’s degree in Education.