biography.

Kaori Nakano is a multifaceted composer, pianist, jazz pianist, music theorist, DTM music producer, and educator. For over 30 years, she has taught a wide range of genres—from classical to pop and jazz piano—at a major music school, YAMAHA in Japan, to students aged 4 to 90. She has successfully prepared candidates for Yamaha instructor qualification exams and trained professional performers for wedding and stage music.

Since 2020, Nakano has expanded her creative activities as a composer, establishing connections with music publishers in the United States and Vienna. Her jazz ensemble works, characterized by lyrical melodic lines blended with rich jazz sounds, have been featured multiple times at The Midwest Clinic’s Jazz Ensemble New Reading Session, performed by professional musicians for music educators (2021, 2022, and 2024).

Her jazz compositions have gained recognition in the U.S.—the birthplace of jazz—including being a three-time Semi-Finalist at the International Songwriting Competition, and receiving JW Pepper’s 2024 Editors’ Choice in the Jazz category. JW Pepper, founded in 1876, is a historic American music publisher, and her work was selected from among numerous works during Jazz Appreciation Month.

In the classical realm, Nakano has published solo piano and flute works with Universal Edition (Vienna), and her compositions have been released on NAXOS CDs. A fourth album featuring three of her piano works is scheduled for release in late 2025.

Her orchestral arrangement commissions include Chopin’s Les Sylphides (ballet) and Joe Hisaishi’s A Town with an Ocean View, both commissioned by the Kanagawa Symphony Orchestra (2023 and 2024, respectively). She has also been commissioned for orchestral works and received honors such as an Honorable Mention in the Orchestral Category of the Sempre Musick 2024 Composition Competition for her NAXOS-released piece The Girl’s Blue and Yellow Pendant.

Her diverse accolades include a Composer Award for Little Sunflowers under the Dark Sky at the Renee B. Fisher Piano Competition, and Second Prize for A Sunflower Under the Blue Sky at the Rodrigo Landa Romero International Composition Competition.

In addition to her published and award-winning works, Nakano has created DTM-produced music for various projects, including floor exercise music for women’s artistic gymnastics (used in Olympic-level training), award-winning background music for puppet theater, and commissioned BGM for Tai Chi performances.

Domestically, she has published 96 piano arrangements on Piascore, widely used in kindergarten teacher exams, school music education, and teacher recruitment tests—highly praised for their elegant yet approachable arrangements.

Nakano holds Yamaha Piano Performance Grade 3 and Instructor Grade 3 certifications, serves as a certified learner grade examiner, and possesses MIDI Certification Level 2 and instructor qualification. She studied jazz piano under Zenshow Ohtsuka and jazz composition/arrangement under Katsuhiko Tanaka.

​With a master’s degree in Indian Buddhism and Yogacara philosophy from Ryukoku University, Nakano’s artistic philosophy is rooted in the belief that music grows from deep empathy with human emotions and life’s inner struggles, expressing the universal search for beauty and meaning that connects all people through sound.

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Kaori-nakano.jimdosite.com

PUBLICATIONS.

In the Case of Her and Him

$20.00

Flexing

$55.00

His Faint Whiff of the Midnight

$65.00

It's a Piece of Cake!

$65.00

A Star Stolen from the Night Sky

$60.00