Salvatore Sciarrino: Ai limiti della notte – Sciarrino in Tokyo 2024

Biographies

Born in Palermo in 1947, Salvatore Sciarrino is a self-taught composer who began composing at the age of twelve and gave his first public concert in 1962. However, he considers all his works prior to 1966 to be part of a learning phase, as this was the period during which his personal style began to develop. His music is characterized by an innovative way of listening that enables a comprehensive emotional perception of reality and also of the listener himself. Sciarrino has composed for major theaters and orchestras worldwide and has participated in many renowned festivals. His discography includes over 100 CDs, and he has written articles, essays, and libretti for his operas. He has taught at various music academies and currently holds summer master classes at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Between 1978 and 1980, he was artistic director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

Japanese flutist Keiko Murakami is known for her work in the field of contemporary music. After studying music education at Shimane University, she continued her flute studies with Mario Caroli and Claire Gentilhomme in Strasbourg and studied music theater with Georges Aperghis in Bern. Since 2003, she has been principal flutist of the Ensemble Linea and a founding member of the Ensemble l'Imaginaire, working closely with composers and artists from other disciplines. Her repertoire ranges from Renaissance to contemporary music, with a focus on world premieres and self-curated projects. Murakami has performed at major festivals in Europe, Japan, and South America. Her recordings have been released by Ricordi, Stradivarius, and l'Empreinte Digitale. Since 2022, she has been teaching modern and historical flute at the Conservatoire du Pays de Montbéliard.

Kaori Tanaka was born in Kitakyushu, Japan, and studied at Kunitachi College of Music and the Music Academy of the City of Basel, where she graduated with honors and completed her Master of Arts as a soloist. She has won numerous international prizes, including first prize at the Japan Music Competition and awards in Basel, Turin, and Odense. As a soloist, she has performed with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, among others. As a soloist, she has performed with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, among others. A former member of the Camerata Bern and principal clarinetist of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, she is active as a soloist, chamber musician, and in contemporary music. After a decade in Europe, she returned to Japan in 2014 and currently teaches at Kunitachi College of Music.

Aldo Campagnari studied in Lodi and Milan and performed as concertmaster of the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana under conductors such as Riccardo Muti and Carlo Maria Giulini. He played in the orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala and continued his studies in Bologna and Lugano. Since 1997, he has been a member of the Quartetto Prometeo, which has won international prizes and recorded works by Schumann, Sciarrino, Wolf, and Szymanowski. He founded the Quartetto Prometeo Festival and directed the ContemporaneaMente Festival in Lodi. Passionate about contemporary music, he is a member of the Alter Ego ensemble in Rome. Campagnari teaches violin, string quartet, and chamber music at various conservatories in Italy and Lugano and has given master classes internationally. He has assisted Salvatore Sciarrino in composition courses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana.

Yoshiko Hannya was born in Hiroshima and studied at Toho Gakuen University before continuing her education in Europe at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and with Paul De Clerck at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She has performed frequently with ensembles such as Ictus and Prometheus and was principal violist in Salvatore Sciarrino's opera Luci mie traditrici at the Royal Theater La Monnaie in Brussels. Since 2004, she has been an artist and lecturer at the Akiyoshidai Summer Contemporary Music Seminar and has been invited to the Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy & Festival. She has toured internationally and participated in numerous contemporary music festivals. She has been living in Kanazawa since 2019 and is very active as a violist and lecturer.

Aki Kitajima was born in Japan and studied cello at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Keiko Matsunami and privately with Ryosuke Hori. From 2008 to 2013, she studied at the Trossingen University of Music (Germany) with Professor Francis Gouton and, with a focus on contemporary music, with Erik Borgir and Sven Thomas Kiebler. She also trained in improvisation and was a scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy (2013–14). In 2014, she won third prize at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition (category: new music ensemble). From 2015 to 2017, she studied baroque cello in Frankfurt with Professor Kristin von der Goltz. She has performed in recitals and concerts for the Japan Society for Contemporary Music and at major festivals such as the Darmstadt Summer Courses, Gaudeamus, the Kurt Weill Festival, and the cresc... Biennale for Contemporary Music Frankfurt. Since 2018, she has given regular solo concerts with two cellos, one Baroque and one modern, and has premiered many works by composers of her generation.

Aki Kuroda studied at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Hans Leygraf, and Bruno Mezzena, graduating with honors from the Accademia Musicale Pescarese in 20th-century piano music. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Japan and Europe, particularly in Italy. She is a prize winner of the French Music Competition, the Tokyo Contemporary Music Competition, and the Xavier Montsalvatge Prize in Spain, and is a member of the Tokyo Gen'On Project. Kuroda is vice president of the National Association of Piano Teachers in Japan and a professor at the Accademia del Ridotto in Italy. Kuroda is also known as a tango and jazz performer. Her recordings of Final Fantasy X / XIII, Tarkus, and Bilder einer Ausstellung have received consistently high praise.

Noriko Yakushiji was born in Tokyo and graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts before pursuing further studies in Belgium with the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International and the Nomura Foundation. She completed a master's degree at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and an advanced master's degree in contemporary music at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent (Ictus/Spectra Academy). She specializes in contemporary repertoire and has sung numerous world premieres and Japanese premieres by composers such as Henri Pousseur, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Claude Ledoux. Yakushiji also studies utai, the vocal art of Nō theater, with Tomotaka Sekine of the Kanze school.

Yoichi Sugiyama was born in Tokyo in 1969 and received his first violin lessons at the age of three from Sugako Shinozaki and Isako Shinozaki. He later studied composition with Akira Miyoshi at the Toho School of Music. He also trained as a conductor with Morihiro Okabe. In 1995, he received a scholarship from the Italian government to study composition with Franco Donatoni and Sandro Gorli and conducting with Emilio Pomàrico. Sugiyama has collaborated with major orchestras and ensembles, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, the Ensemble Modern, and the Klangforum Wien. He has been awarded the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award and the Minister of Education's Art Promotion Award in 2023, as well as the Keizo Saji Prize and the Toshi Ichiyanagi Contemporary Prize for his compositions. In October 2024, he conducted the premiere of the Japanese version of Salvatore Sciarrino's Lohengrin (with Ai Hashimoto in the title role) at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, which was very well received. He currently teaches at the Claudio Abbado Conservatory in Milan.