ZEN-ON - Key Persons

Hitomi Kaneko was born in Tokyo. While studying in the postgraduate school of Toho Gakuen College Music Department she gained a scholarship from the French government to further her studies in the Faculty of Composition at the Paris Conservatoire. She was awarded first prize in the Franco-Japanese Contemporary Composition Competition in 1988 and first prize in the orchestral composition section of the 59 th Japan Music Competition in 1990, together with the E. Nakamichi Prize, and the 9 th Muramatsu Prize. She studied composition with Akira Miyoshi and Gérard Grisey. Her works have been performed at the Darmstadt Festival of Contemporary Music, the Festival d'Automne de Paris, at contemporary music festivals in Avignon and Nice, the Bucharest Contemporary Music Week, the Heemstede Contemporary Music Week, Music from Japan and the Takefu International Music Festival, and by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic and the Tokyo Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. She was a researcher at IRCAM in Paris in 1994 and has created works in the electronic music studio of NHK. She lived in France in 2011 and 2012 as an artist sponsored for overseas study by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and served as Guest Research at the Paris-Sorbonne University.

Kenji Sakai was born in Osaka. Having studied at Kyoto City University of Fine Arts and Music, he respectively studied composition, piano, electronics and analysis at Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris then Haute Ecole de Musique de Geneve and at Ircam. He was a member of the French Academy in Madrid for 2012-2013 then a fellow of the French Academy in Rome (Pensionnaire de la Villa Medicis) for 2015-2016. His works were premiered by prestigious orchestras, ensembles and soloists. He served as the composer in residence at the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra in the season 2017 ? 2019. He gains several awards: First Prize in Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (2009),　Queen Elisabeth International Grand Prize (2012), Akutagawa Composition Award (2013) and Rome Prize. He is also awarded by Commissioner for Cultural Affairs in Japan. He is lecturer of Kyoto City University of Fine Arts and Music.