Concerts and Piano Teaching

Dr. Aleksei Takenouchi enjoys his living near Los Angeles, CA. At first, he lived in a mountain community, Idyllwild, and moved to the Los Angeles area two years later. He teaches and gives concerts, adjudicates and writes. His style of teaching is very concentrated and his strategy is to make one minute of teaching equivalent to 15 minutes of teaching. Marc Yu, the 10 year old prodigy who has played with Lang Lang at Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall, presently studies with Dr. Takenouchi.

He has written numerous articles for several Japanese music magazines, including, Chopin, Ongaku-no-Tomo, and Musica Nova. Because of his close connection to the Goldenweiser family, Van Cliburn invited Aleksei several times to his Fort Worth, TX, home. Van Cliburn almost never gives interviews, however, when Aleksei asked permission that the meeting become an interview, Van Cliburn was more than forthcoming and the interview was just great! The interviews were published in Japan.  The photo below is at Van Cliburn's home.

Dr. Aleksei Takenouchi always liked contemporary music and always includes them in his recital program. In 2007, Aleksei decided to once again try and participate as a competitor in an international piano competition. He chose the Vladimir Viardo International Piano Competition, Dallas TX where he was awarded special prize, I Fan Liu Prize, for his outstanding performance.  

"Performing is not just playing notes on the keyboard. There is much more involved. How energy is cultivated and distributed, hand position and angles, wrist usage, mental and spiritual approach, all these elevate the standard of playing and make it more sophisticated. Elena Goldenweiser, Lazar Berman and Dmitri Paperno were very special. They shared with me many things. Also, my study of martial arts clarified for me many of the ways the internal energy can be used.  I have won several awards in my internal martial arts demonstrations. Everything spills into other disciplines.  I can count many friends from other disciplines: Mr. Dennis Stevens, an architect who studied with Frank Lloyd Wright, Baroness Ludmilla von Trapp, painter who was married to Sound of Music fame-one of the real von Trapp boys shown in the movie, Lloyd Alexander, children's book writer who has won Newberry Awards (Prydian Chronicles), many more musicians, composers, and published authors;  meeting, talking to them, nurturing thought ideas that would grow in our conversations, all this has contributed to my being."

-Aleksei Takenouchi