An internationally recognised pianist specialising in the performance of contemporary music. She was born in Japan, grew up in Brazil and is based in Germany. 

In 2007, she started the project Movement to sound, sound to Movement for piano, electronics and video. Working in close collaboration with composers innovative acoustic video performances have been created and performed worldwide. 

As a soloist she has premiered piano concertos with orchestras such as the SWR Symphonieorchester, WDR Sinfonieorchester and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Brad Lubman and Bas Wiegers. She performed in music festivals in Germany, including ECLAT Festival Stuttgart, Ultraschall Berlin, Festival Acht Brücken Cologne, and Warsaw Autumn (Poland) , Sound of Stockholm (Sweden), Klang Festival (Denmark) and Monday Evening Concerts (USA), among others. She is a member of the Ensemble Experimental from SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg. Between 2003 and 2017, she performed an improvisational project for piano and live electronics with Peter Vogel. 

Rei Nakamura also develops theoretical approaches and concepts from her artistic experience. She is interested in the relationship between performance, music and art. This has resulted in published articles in “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” and “MusikTexte” and a radio show in Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2021, she published the book Movement to sound, sound to Movement – Interpreting Multimedia Piano Compositions (Wolke Verlag). 

She gives seminars and master classes at various universities and colleges, in particular on piano music of the 20th and 21st centuries as well as multimedia repertoire.