Profile

She appeared on NBC TV at the following year, and was soloist several times for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at twelve years old. The "Newsweek" magazine made a TV programme introducing her daily life to the USA. In 1978 her family moved to Baghdad, Iraq and Megumi continued her studies with Agnes Bashir, performing with the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra.

She joined the Yehudi Menuhin School in 1979 to study with Simon Nicholls and Louis Kentner. At 19, she was selected as a post-graduate student at the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel-Aviv University and studied with Irina Zaritskaya winning First Prize in the Piano Competition at the Academy the same year.
She continued her post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Music with Irina Zaritskaya, winning the Hopkinson Gold Medal in 1986.

Megumi has since won numerous prizes including 3rd Prize at the International Bosendorfer Competition, Belgium, 4th Prize Montreal International Piano Competition, 2nd Prize PTNA Piano Competition, Japan, Semi-finalist International Queen Elizabeth Competition, Belgium, and diplomas at International Chopin Competition, Poland and International Beethoven Competition, Austria. She has also received a Commemorative Medal from the F.Chopin Scholarship Fund Committee, Poland.

Megumi has performed numerous concertos and recitals throughout the world including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, and USA, at prestigious venues including the Barbican Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Atheneum Hall (Romania), Place des Arts (Montreal, Canada), Cemal Resit Rey Hall (Istanbul, Turkey), Kioi Hall (Tokyo, Japan), Oji Hall (Tokyo, Japan). And several radio broadcasts including the BBC Radio 3, Japan NHK FM radio, Canadian Radio, Moroccan national radio, and the Romanian national TV and radio.

The conductors Megumi have collaborated with include Sergiu Comissiona, Robert Shaw, Christian Mandeal, I.Ionescu-Galati, David Josefowitz, and Yukio Kitahara.

Recently, she has performed the Beethoven piano concerto No.4 and No.5, Rachmaninov piano concerto No.2, Tchaikovsky piano concerto No.1, a tour of the Beethoven Triple Concerto in the Loire area, France with the Orchestre National de Pays de la Loire, conducted by Issac Karabchevsky, and has recorded the chamber music works by Takemitsu for ASV Records, which was highly acclaimed by critics worldwide, to coincide with the Fujita Trio's Wigmore Hall recital.

Megumi has recorded the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio, Rachmaninov 24 Preludes for piano, Shostakovich/Ravel Trios and Schubert Piano Trios with the Swedish label Intim Musik.

In 2006 Megumi gave a highly acclaimed recital at the Wigmore Hall performing Schumann works to coincide with the 150th Anniversary of Schumann's death.

Future engagements include concerts in Sweden and throughout the UK, and a Solo Piano Recital at the Wigmore Hall on 19th June 2009.