Naoko Christ-Kato
PIANIST
PIANO RECITAL
"Rosy Wertheim's wondrous worlds"
Rosy Wertheim (1888-1949) was one of the first Dutch female composers to complete a professional musical education and achieved international renown. Alongside music, her social commitment played an important role in her life. She lived and worked for many years in Paris, Vienna, and New York. She took lessons in harmony and counterpoint from Bernard Zweers and composition from Sem Dresden in Amsterdam, as well as composition from Louis Aubert in Paris and from Karl Weigl, the teacher of Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Schoenberg in Vienna. During a seven-year stay in Paris, her house served as a meeting place for many artists, including Messiaen, Jolivet, Milhaud, Honegger, and Ibert. Her compositions were performed at home and abroad. When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, Rosy Wertheim was already 52 years old and living in Amsterdam. From September 1942, as a Jew, she was forced into hiding for several years in order to survive. She was one of the few members of her family to survive Nazi persecution. Her catalogue of works includes nearly 90 compositions that, despite their quality, were unfortunately forgotten after the war.
Naoko Christ-Kato recorded rediscovered piano works by Rosy Wertheim in May 2025, and the recording will be released by GENUIN in late 2025 or early 2026. Many of these are world premiere recordings.
Naoko Christ-Kato
was born in Yokohama, Japan, and studied piano in Tokyo, Hanover with Prof. Konrad Meister, and Lübeck with Prof. Manfred Fock, where she graduated with an artistic concert exam. She is a prizewinner of the "Young Artist Piano Contest" and the "Best Players Contest" in Japan. In 2015, she founded the Gernsheim Duo with soprano Anna Gann. Since then, she has continued to work on the discovery and performance of works by forgotten and persecuted Jewish composers. In 2019, the duo's first CD, "Verborgene Schätze," was released by GENUIN, featuring 22 piano songs as world premiere recordings by Friedrich Gernsheim.
The ensemble has performed concerts as far afield as Japan. In 2023, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK and NHK World broadcast a feature on the duo's commitment to forgotten Jewish composers. She has also published articles in various print media and radio broadcasts in Germany and Japan. She maintains a busy concert schedule as a soloist, as a partner in recitals, in chamber music ensembles, and in projects with artists. In 2024, she premiered the suite "Waldminiaturen" by the American composer Stanley Grill (*1953), which was composed especially for her. Her CD "In the Forest" was released in November 2024. Naoko Christ-Kato holds scholarships from the German Music Council (2022) and the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Thuringia (2025).
Lesung mit Musik
Sandra Kreisler & Naoko Christ-Kato
"Quellen des Lebens"
- die Kraft von jüdischen Frauen
Klavierwerke von Rosy Wertheim
Gedichte von Gertrud Kolmar, Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger und Nelly Sachs
In der Wiederentdeckung und Gegenüberstellung dieser vier verfolgten jüdischen Künstlerinnen spüren Sandra Kreisler (Texte) und Naoko Christ-Kato (Klavier) der poetischen Harmonie nach, die sich aus der zarten und doch zähen Zuwendung zur Kunst als persönliche Lebensrettung ergibt.
Die Musik und die Texte zeigen auf exemplarische Weise die Nähe von weiblichen Lebenswelten in fragilen Verhältnissen, wie wir sie auch heute erleben.
Sandra Kreisler
wurde in München geboren, wuchs aber größtenteils in Wien und Berlin auf. Sie ist Autorin, Regisseurin, Diseuse, Darstellerin und Sprecherin - und seit Jahren aktiv im Kampf gegen Antisemitismus.
Die mehrfache Preisträgerin spielt üblicherweise Solo-Chansonprogramme, darunter auch ein jüdisches Programm mit dem bekannten "Trio Sho". Diese neue Zusammenarbeit geht auf eine Initiative der Pianistin Naoko christ-Kato zurück, und bringt eine völlig neue Seite der Künstlerin zum Vorschein.
Foto : Simone Hofmann