How Farragut senior Haruki Takeuchi became one of the best young pianists in the world

Haruki Takeuchi, a senior at Farragut High School, is Knoxville's most accomplished young pianist and among the best young pianists in the world.

In the last few years, he has won too many international and national competitions to name, including first place wins in Austria and Italy, and he has performed in Poland and Japan.

As he applies to the nation's top music schools on a path towards a career as a concert pianist, Takeuchi practices between three and eight hours a day. The piano's 88 keys are an orchestra unto themselves, he told me as I sat in on his weekly lesson, though it's hard for him to pinpoint exactly what he loves about the instrument.

"If you like someone, there's not much you can explain about that," Takeuchi said. "Something about the piano has always been attracting. I think as I played it more and more, it's just what I realized I wanted to do."

Seated at a Steinway & Sons concert grand piano, he practiced the second movement of Beethoven's Sonata No. 31, his eyes closed in a focused reverence for the instrument and the composer.

On a couch across the living room sat his teacher of six years, Professor David Northington, the proprietor of the concert grand and four other grand pianos in his Farragut home.

Northington's own eyes were closed in concentration. As he listened to his student play, he tapped his feet to the floor as if he himself were pressing the pedals to soften or extend the abrupt explosives of Beethoven's penultimate sonata.

Takeuchi, the son of Yoshi and Naomi Takeuchi, said he remembers listening to his mother play Chopin on the family's electronic keyboard as a child. His curiosity was piqued.

Shortly after he began taking lessons from Northington's wife at six years old, he declared his intention to become a pianist and dedicated himself to learning a grand history and repertoire.

His talent has given Northington the privilege of being exacting. Once the second movement was through, he got up to stand beside his student, stamping his foot and exuberantly shouting out the tempo he wanted him to follow.

Since his retirement from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 2016 after 39 years as a professor and international concert pianist, Northington has taken only a handful of dedicated students.

A teacher, he told me, cannot teach a student an intrinsic skill or motivate them to pursue musical truth if they are not willing.

"A teacher can help teach piano skills at the keyboard and a certain degree of relaxation and how to create tone and different varieties of achieving color on the piano," Northington said. "Haruki has always been a bit of a sponge. He's always been a great student and is willing to try everything I suggest."

Gaining admittance into the nation's top music colleges and conservatories, which take only a handful of students a year, is no small feat. Competing against students from around the world has shown Takeuchi what it takes.

Anxiety followed him for a month after he got home from his first international competition, Takeuchi admitted with a laugh. Northington, who performed internationally as an artistic ambassador for the U.S. State Department, calls the nerves "excitement."

"I've always told my students that if you ever get to the point where you're about to walk out onto the stage to perform and you're not excited, that's when you should quit and never play again," Northington said.

Takeuchi has learned strategies to cope with the "excitement" that has plagued some of the world's greatest concert pianists through their careers. In addition to piano, he plays the violin in the Farragut High School orchestra and the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Knoxville residents will have the chance to hear Takeuchi play at the Evelyn Miller Young Pianist Series at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Takeuchi will also be a featured soloist in the KSYO Winter Concert, held 7 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Tennessee Theatre.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.   

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Farragut High School pianist Haruki Takeuchi takes piano to new level