Ikumi Nakagawa was born in Hyōgo in Japan and studied at the Nara University of Education and at the Graduate School of Music at the Kyoto City University of Arts. She also completed a course at the Suntory Hall Opera Academy in Tokyo. Among her teachers have been Taemi Kohama, Giuseppe Sabbatini and Gabriella Tucci. Even while she was a student she was already appearing at the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in roles that included Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Eurydice (Orphée aux enfers), Adina (L’elisir d’amore) and L’Enfant et les sortilèges. In 2018 she won the first prize in the Osaka Centre Rotary Club Music Competition. In 2019/20 she took part successfully in the 17th Tokyo Music Competition and the International Educational Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo (PMF) under the direction of Valery Gergiev. Ikumi Nakagawa has often been heard in the concert hall, most notably as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. During the 2020/21 season she sang Liù (Turandot) for Tachikawa Citizen Opera and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) for Opera Salon Tonakai.
