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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 24th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2021> The Japanese “Piano Angel” with Cerebral Palsy — Kanae Iwasaki
The Japanese “Piano Angel” with Cerebral Palsy — Kanae Iwasaki
Even if I can only move one finger, I can still play the music of life

“Music has changed my life and fate, I want the whole world to know, that people with disabilities can play the piano.” — Kanae Iwasaki
 
Music without borders
 
Kanae Iwasaki was born on April 17, 1993. Due to premature birth, she suffered a condition called Periventricular Leukomalacia, or PVL. Doctors told her parents that Kanae would never live a normal life. The news was life-shattering for her family.
 
At age six, Kanae was attending a piano concert played by her sister. Kanae also wanted to play the piano. Despite only able to move her right pointing figure, Kanae fell in love with music, and she would play music such as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Ode to Joy” with help from her sister and mother.
 
Since age seven, Kanae has been performing both in Japan and around the world, including the United States, Canada, Austria. In January 2018, she published her first piano album, “One Flower”. Right now, Kanae and her mother travels around Japan annually, performing in dozens of hospitals, nursing homes and pediatric wards.
 
Through her music and performance, Kanae hopes to instill a sense of hope and optimism for her audience. In her eyes, people can be united through music. Kanae’s mother has been supportive throughout the years, she believed Kanae, despite her disabilities, is still a gift from god.
 
The one finger pianist
 
Due to PVL and subsequent complications, Kanae cannot stand or walk. She needed help with many daily activities from getting dressed to brushing teeth to even going to the restroom. However, she can speak, and use her right hand to eat and write.
She spent the first three years of her life in a special children care, and later studied at a public kindergarten for two years, during which she met many parents and children who supported her dreams. Kanae went to elementary and middle school with the help from her mother.
Because normal public schools in Japan don’t have the infrastructures to allow accommodate students with special needs, so Kanae’s mother spoke to Japan’s education board to advocate for more inclusivity.
Needless to say, Kanea’s mother had played a massive role in her daughter’s development and pianist career. Kanae wanted to learn to play the piano, but her poor eye sight made it difficult for her to see the music sheets.
Despite these challenges, she read what she could and remembered the notes by heart. Kanae only has one finger that can play the piano, but through sheer hard work, she learned to fully control the tempo and strength of her touch.
Her mother was jovial when she saw her daughter picking up piano as a hobby. Although she didn’t touch a piano for over 30 years, the mother and daughter decided to learn together from scratch.
 
Help from all sides
 
        Through music, Kanae befriend Tokio Sakoda, president of the institute for Piano Teachers and Disabled Japan and one of the founders of the Piano Paralympics.
        Kanae’s first taste of fame began on 2005, when her performance drew massive media attention and admiration from fans. She went on to perform in the prestigious Carnegie Hall in the US in 2007, as well as in Vancouver, Canada in 2007.
        In 2012, Kanae, along with other pianists with disabilities, performed in a heart-warming piano concert in Taiwan. Some of these performers had Down syndromes, some were blinded, others were muted, but all of them overcame their physical challenges and performed music to the soul.
        Two years later, Kanae won the music cultural award of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers. In 2016, Kanae returned to the US, along with Takuto Koyanagi, Mayu Shimizu, Saki Goi, to perform in the Ribbon of the Sound event in Santa Clara and Las Vegas. Their performance touched the audience deeply, and brought new meaning to the music of life.
        On January 2018, Kanae and her mother produced their first piano album, the “One Flower”. The album contained seven songs, and she would play them in the three-dozen charity performance each year across Japan.
 
A gift from god
 
Kanae was born special, and this took a heavy toll on her family. But they did not give up. They would try everything to fill Kanae’s life with hope and joy. Such effort is embodied in the following poem for Kanae by a nurse named Edna Massiomilla.
 
Heaven’s Very Special Child
A meeting was held quite from from Earth!
It’s time again for another birth.
Said the Angels to the LORD above,
This special child will need much love.
Her progress may be very slow,
Accomplishments she may not show.
And she’ll require extra care
From the folks she meets down there.
She may not run or laugh or play,
Her thoughts may seem quite far away,
In many ways she won’t adapt,
And she’ll be known as handicapped.
So let’s be careful where she’s sent,
We want her life to be content.
Please LORD, find the parents who
Will do a special job for you.
They will not realize right away
The leading role they’re asked to play,
But with this child sent from above
Comes stronger faith and richer love
And soon they’ll know the privilege given
In caring for their gift from Heaven.
Their precious charge, so meek and mild,
Is Heaven’s very special child.
 
Kanae’s mother recalled when she first met her daughter, “I gave up my dream because I had to look after her, but what I didn’t realize that, through her, we became the bridge connecting music and love, nation and the world. She is a definitely a gift from above.”