佐渡裕 + 沢井一恵

profile

Kazue Sawai (Koto)

Kazue Sawai started to study koto under the legendary Michio Miyagi and is a graduate of the Tokyo National University of the Arts. She and her husband, Tadao Sawai, established the Sawai Koto Academy. Although she remains active in the contemporary Japanese music scene, she engages herself in taking unconventional approaches in a variety of experimental activities, namely collaborations with composer Toshi Ichiyanagi and percussionist Sumire Yoshiwara in the "Triangle Music Tour" and the "Kazue Sawai 360 Degrees," and playing in recitals produced by John Zorn and Yuji Takahashi.
She has been invited to perform at New York's BANG ON A CAN Festival, Vienna, the Paris City Theater, the Mels Jazz Festival,​​
and Music Action in France. Through her concerts in various genres, she has explored the common ground between the traditional Japanese instrument the koto and Western music, contemporary music, Jazz, and musical improvisations. The collab and impromptu performances with John Cage and Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina led to the world premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's​ Koto Concerto​ (commissioned by the NHK Symphony Orchestra). They held six performances in the United States, namely at New York's Carnegie Hall, the Boston Symphony Hall, and other renowned concert halls. Since then, she has tried to seek the authentic value of koto music in her performances in many music scenes around the world, such as through her collaboration with the Russian National Orchestra.


Yutaka Sado (Conductor)

After graduating from the Kyoto City University of Arts, Yutaka Sado traveled to the United States to attend the Tanglewood Music Festival.
After years of studying with the late Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa,​​
he won the annual International Besancon Competition for Young Conductors in 1989 and started to attract attention around the world.
In 1995, Yutaka Sado was named the winner of the first Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Music Competition, and was awarded the title of "Leonard Bernstein Laureate Conductor."
He is currently based in Berlin and is invited a guest conductor of many leading European orchestras every year, including Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Deutsches Symphonie‑Orchester Berlin, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, RAI National Symphony Orchestra and Italian Symphony Radio Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
In July 2003, he conducted Verdi's La Traviata at the Aix-en-Provence Festival with Orchestre de Paris and Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Choregies d'Orange in July 2007 with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. His eight performances of Britten's Peter Grimes at the Teatro Regio in Turin February 2010 were also a great success.
In May 2011, he debuted at the regular concerts with the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and is expected to deliver even more amazing performances in Germany and throughout the world.
In Japan, he has served as Artistic Director of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center and Principal Conductor of the Siena Wind Orchestra. He has also conducted the "Yutaka Sado Young People's Concert," and "Suntory Presents Beethoven's 9th With A Cast Of 10,000" every year since 1999. He has released many CDs with foreign orchestras including "Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique" (Orchestre de Paris), "Mahler: Symphony No. 5" (Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra), "Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'" (Deutsches Symphonie‑Orchester Berlin), and "Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1" (BBC Philharmonic/Piano: Nobuyuki Tsujii). The "Festival of Brass" series in which he conducted the Siena Wind Orchestra has also been a smash hit. He is the author of "Boku Wa Ikani Shite Shikisha Ni Natta Noka" (Shincho Bunko) and "Boku ga otona ni nattara" (PHP Bunko), among many other titles.​