In 1988, Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa was brought to the attention of Alexander Schneider by the recommendation of pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Schneider engaged her as soloist with his Brandenburg Ensemble at the opening concerts of Tokyo’s Casals Hall; later that year, Schneider presented Rieko in her U.S. debut concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall with his New York String Orchestra. Since then Rieko has performed in solo and orchestral engagements throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. An avid chamber musician, Rieko has performed as a guest with string quartets including the Guarneri Quartet and the Orion Quartet, and she has participated in festivals such as the Marlboro and the Evian in France. Rieko is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where she studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Seymour Lipkin and Peter Serkin. In 2005 Rieko’s solo debut recording of Scriabin’s and Shostakovich’s “24 Preludes” was released by Altus in Japan.