The International Piano Festival celebrates pianists who have overcome their disabilities and mastered the piano despite their physical challenge. We encourage all pianists with disabilities to demonstrate their musical achievements.

Ludwig von Beethoven was a German composer and pianist.  In his early twenties he began to lose his hearing.  Knowing that his handicap was getting worse, he threw himself into his greatest works which included exceptional sonatas for piano. Despite his handicap, Beethoven is revered as a virtuoso pianist and composer, one of the greatest in Classical history. 

Pianist Paul Wittgenstein, an Austrian pianist and composer had his right arm amputated in World War I. During his recovery, he began to study intensely, arranging pieces for the left hand alone and learning new pieces composed for him.  Today he is still revered as one of the greatest pianist in the history of music.  Many of the pieces that Wittgenstein commissioned are frequently performed today by two-armed pianists.  Pianists born after Wittgenstein who for one reason or another have lost the use of their right hands, such as Leon Fleisher and João Carlos Martins, have also played works composed for Wittgenstein.

The famous Japanese Koto Player (Koto is a traditional Japanese string instrument) Michio Miyagi lost his sight when he was 8 years old.  He started his study Koto at this same time and dedicated the rest of his life to the instrument. In 1909 at the age of 14, he wrote his first composition, Mizu no Hentai.  At 18 he reached the rank of kengyo, the highest rank for a Koto performer. Michio is known for having laid the foundations of this Japanese instrument. He wrote more than 500 pieces, improved Japanese string instruments, and invented new kotos with 17 strings (bass koto) and 80 strings.

Beautiful and heartfelt music can be produced by a true artist despite his or her disability.  A pianist with one hand or one finger has the same potential to create music as one with ten fingers and two hands.

We would like to establish a world-wide piano music festival filled with new ideas to celebrate and encourage the talents of our population of physically challenged artists. Let us say that the possibilities of human ability are unlimited.  We are dedicated to continue to encourage, appreciate and praise people with these special skills through music and to bring awareness of such achievements to the general public. Through this kind of international exchange we also believe that we can contribute to World Peace.