Composer Kento Ishikawa
Profile
Kento Ishikawa
Born in Katsushika, Tokyo in 1997. now based in Cologne, Germany.
He explores the connections between all of his interests outside of music and music itself, and uses every hint he gains in that process not only for his creative work but also as sustenance for his life.
He has won numerous awards, including first prize in the composition division of the 91st Japan Music Competition, the Meiji Yasuda Prize, the Miyoshi Prize (2022), the Mitsubishi Estate Prize (2023), and the 34th Yasushi Akutagawa Suntory Composition Award (formerly the Akutagawa Composition Award) (2024). In 2026, he was awarded the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Scholarship by the City of Cologne, Germany, and in September of the same year, he held a Portrait Concert (a solo exhibition of his own works) in the city, demonstrating his international activities.
Judge Carola Bauckholt (1959-) highly praised his work, saying ,
"He has a good sense of dramaturgy, and the tension is maintained, especially by the unexpected surprise of sound. The alternation between a vibrant and humorous world of sound and delicate structure supports this special lightness in Kento Ishikawa's music."
In 2025, as a recipient of the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Young Creators Development Program, he will participate in the Lucerne Festival Composers Academy. He will also participate in workshops and seminars around the world, such as the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, Barcelona Modern, and the Divertimento Ensemble Composer Academy, to further hone his skills.
Commissioned by numerous organizations including NHK, Suntory Foundation for the Arts, Ernst von Siemens Foundation, and Music from Japan, the work has been widely performed and garnered attention by domestic and international ensembles such as Ensemble Musikfabrik, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.
His recent works include "Bricola-Jugemu" (2023, winner of the Yasushi Akutagawa Suntory Composition Award), a chamber orchestra piece that combines the world of classical rakugo (traditional Japanese storytelling) born from the Japanese art of ragtag assembly with the concept of bricolage; "Addictive Circuit" (2024, commissioned by NHK), an orchestral work themed on the mechanisms of addiction; "Mimic Octopus" (2025, collaborative work with Ensemble Musikfabrik), which depicts a mimicking octopus from a unique perspective; and "Olfactory Receptor for Two Keyboards and Orchestra" (2026, commissioned by the Suntory Foundation for the Arts), which draws inspiration from the sense of smell.
A recipient of the 7th Kuma Foundation Creator Scholarship, and a recipient of the Rohm Music Foundation Scholarship in 2025 and 2026. Member of the 21st Century Music Society. In recent years, he has also been actively involved in conducting premieres of new works.
He has studied composition under Masaki Murata, Tomiko Kohjiba, Keiichi Morigaki, Akio Yasuraoka, Misato Mochizuki, and Miroslav Srnka, and conducting under Yosuke Funabashi.
She graduated from the composition department of Tokyo University of the Arts and completed her master's degree in composition at the same university's graduate school. Upon graduation, she received the Acanthus Music Award from the graduate school. In 2024, she moved to Europe and is currently enrolled in the master's program in instrumental composition at the University of Music and Dance Cologne.
