Kenji Sakai

Kenji Sakai
Period: 2015-2016
Profession: Composer Kenji Sakai was born in Osaka in 1977. A Japanese national, he studied in Japan before moving to Europe, where he continued his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and at Ircam. He rapidly developed his career on an international scale, with premieres by the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Kenji Sakai has been invited to the Musica Festival in Strasbourg, the Agora Festival in Paris, the Musica Nova Festival in Helsinki, the Musiques en Scène Biennale in Lyon, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the KKL in Lucerne, the TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Tokyo Opera City. He has won several international prizes, including the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award in 2009, the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne Award in 2011 and the Queen Elisabeth International Grand Prix in 2012. Kenji Sakai was decorated by Japan’s Commissioner for Cultural Affairs in July 2012 and was a member of the Académie de France à Madrid – Casa de Velázquez in 2012-2013. Kenji Sakai’s project at Villa Medici will be devoted to the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) and the study of his language of reference. It will be divided into two stages. The first will focus on a “reinterpretation” of the composer’s musical writing: Kenji Sakai will seek to “adjust” his own writing and integrate that of the composer with his own, establishing a link between two different musical styles. This research will be carried out with a view to the creation of a symphony orchestra and/or a piece for ensemble and electronics, which he is working on for the 2016-2017 season. The second stage will consist in exploring the notion of “over-listening”, a term he designates as questioning listening in dialogue with the heart.