European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Kenji Sakai in Portrait with "Music From Japan"

Feb. 01, 2017

Kenji Sakai in Portrait with "Music From Japan"

Music From Japan (MFJ)—the annual New York-based festival of Japanese contemporary and traditional music—presents a portrait concert featuring the works of Kenji Sakai on February 18 at the Scandinavia House in New York City. The performance will be preceded by a pre-concert lecture titled “Multi-Culturalization in Japanese Contemporary Music,” led by Japanese musicologist Fuyuko Fukunaka.

The program includes recent chamber and solo works by Sakai, including Blaze for solo bassoon, Fanfare Toward the Dusk for trumpet and piano, Borders for soprano and ensemble, and Mixtures for woodwind quintet. Performers include Fred Sherry, Alan R. Kay, Eriko Sato, Yen-Chen Wu, Carmen J. Camerieri, Sam Yulsman, Wonjung Kim, Akikazu Nakamura, and Samuel Budish.

Born August 6, 1977 in Osaka, Japan, and currently residing in Berlin, Kenji Sakai is one of Japan's most successful young composers. He has been awarded the Grand Prix in composition in the George Enescu International Competition (2007), the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (2009), and the Grand Prix in composition in the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2012). His works have been performed by l’Orchestre National de Lyon, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Contrechamps, and Ensemble Itinéraire, among others.

Listen to an excerpt of Blaze, for solo bassoon, one of the featured works at Music From Japan's Sakai portrait concert:  

For more information on Kenji Sakai, visit zen-on.co.jp and kenjisakai.net.

Kenji Sakai
Blaze (2015)
for solo bassoon
10’ 

Fanfare Toward the Dusk (2015)
for trumpet and piano
10’ 

Borders (2016)
for soprano and ensemble
shakuhachi.cl-perc-vn.vc
10’ 

Mixtures (2013-14)
for woodwind quintet
12’

News