Shin-ichiro Ikebe

About the Composer

Shin-ichiro Ikebe was born in Mito City in 1943. In 1971, he completed his graduate coursework at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.  Ikebe won First Prize in the composition section of the 35th Japan Music Competition in 1966. The same year, he was awarded First Prize in the Ongaku-No-Tomo Sha chamber music composition competition, and in 1968, he won the Composition Prize of the Ongaku-No-Tomo Sha Corp. He would go on to be awarded numerous honors throughout his long and prolific career, including the Prize of the City for excellence in the TV-Opera Fest in Salzburg, the Italian Broadcasting (RAI) Prize (an award that he won three times), and the International Emmy Awards. Ikebe was awarded for excellence in the Fine Arts Festival four times, the Otaka Prize three times, the Mainichi Film Music Prize three times, and the Music Prize for excellence in the Japanese Academy Awards nine times. Additionally, Shin-Ichiro Ikebe was awarded the NHK Broadcasting Culture Prize, the JXTG Music Prize, and the Culture Prizes of Himeji City, Yokohama-City, Mito-City, and Kanagawa-prefecture. In 2018, he was awarded a Purple Medal and won the Agency for Cultural Affairs 50th Anniversary Award and Person of Cultural Merits Award.

Ikebe's works include ten symphonies, eleven operas, many works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, choral works, and music for film. Additionally, he has written more than 480 pieces of incidental music for plays.  Currently, Shin-Ichiro Ikebe is Professor Emeritus at the Tokyo College of Music and the Director of Tokyo Opera-City.

To learn more about Shin-ichiro Ikebe, visit zen-on.co.jp.

Concerto for Clarinet and Ensemble "The Principle of Whirling" (2024)
for clarinet and ensemble
1.1.1.1-1.1.1.0-2perc:flex/tgl/cyms/glock/marac/sus.cym-str-solo cl
9'
The Tokyo Sinfonietta performs Ikebe's Concerto for Clarinet and Ensemble "The Principle of Whirling" featuring soloist and conductor, Yasuaki Itakura

Quatrevalence (1996)
for violin, viola, and piano
8.5'
Preview the score

Quinquevalence, 1991

The Orbit Elevator for Voice and Saxophone, 2004

Strata XI for String Quartet, 2015

Laughing Harmonica. Boiling Harmonica, 2019

Bivalence XVI for Two Bassoons, 2021