MEMBERS

DIRECTOR

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Born in Tokyo in 1952. Made his solo debut in 1978 with "A Thousand Knives". In the same year, he formed the Yellow Magic Orchestra. After the band split up, he continued to play an active role in many areas. He won a British Academy Film Award for the music of "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983), an Academy Award for Original Music Score for the music of the film "The Last Emperor", a Grammy Award, and other awards. He often speaks about environmental and peace issues, and has supported victims of the Tohoku Pacific Ocean Earthquake through music, such as founding the forest conservation group "More Trees" and the "Tohoku Youth Orchestra". He served as artistic director of the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) in 2013 and guest director of the Sapporo International Art Festival in 2014. He has exhibited large-scale installations at piknic/Seoul in 2018, M WOODS/Beijing in 2021, and M WOODS/Chengdu in 2023. His latest mixed reality work, "KAGAMI," will tour New York, Manchester, London, and other cities after his death, and his active involvement in the art world continues to this day. He passed away on March 28, 2023, at the age of 71.

CONDUCTOR

In 2007, he became the chief conductor of the Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra in the autonomous province of Kosovo under UN administration. He founded the Balkan Chamber Orchestra in hopes of achieving co-prosperity for the people of the former Yugoslavia. He has held World Peace Concerts in Vienna, Geneva, Sarajevo, Belgrade, New York, Tokyo, etc., and performed with Pascal Rogé, Peter Jablonski, Akiko Suwanai, and others. He has also performed at the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations European Headquarters. In 2022, he will perform with Kolija Blacher at Parco della Musica in Rome, together with members of the Orchestra of the Roman Opera House. He was awarded the Kosovo President's Order of Cultural Merit for his efforts in regional peace through the orchestra.