Aya Sakakibara
Cellist
Aya Sakakibara was born in Japan.
She studied in Tokyo, Italy and France.
Currently she lives in Paris.
Contact:
19 rue Dautancourt
75017 Paris FRANCE
tel. (33) 1 42 26 52 19
Aya SAKAKIBARA began studying music at the age of 3. She had a thoroughly classical training,
first at the prestigious Toho School of Music in Tokyo, and later with celebrated masters of the cello, Yoritoyo INOUE, Alain MEUNIER, Philippe MULLER , in Paris and Sienna (Academia Chigiana).
She has performed solo recitals and chamber music concerts throughout Japan and Europe, and has played with a number of well-known orchestras (NHK Orchestra of Tokyo, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique International) under the direction of renowned conductors such as : Seiji OZAWA, Simon GOLDBERG and Giuseppe SINOPOLI .
While pursuing her career as a performer, Ms. Sakakibara cultivated an active interest in musical composition. In Tokyo she studied with Akira MIYOSHI , and continued her work in Paris with Antoine BONNET . Her works have been heard at a number of well-received performances in France.
Since her debut in Paris in 1994 she has performed many concerts throughout Europe, particularly with the pianist Masako SHIMURA . They have explored the repertoire from the classics to the most recent works of the 20th century. In 1996 she was invited to play in Germany and in 1997 in Kyoto.
She has performed with the Orchestre Philharmonique International under the direction of Armin Kouider in Paris and on tour in Guadeloupe, Alger and Marseille.
She has also taught cello at the Conservatoire de Chatenay-Malabry.
In the domain of theatre Ms. Sakakibara has been able to fuse her diverse talents and develop a more personal style of expression. In 1999 she composed her first piece for contemporary dance and performed as musician/dancer in the premiere of “Mura-iki” with the company Virtus Fluens (UNESCO, Semaine de Kyoto).
She co-created and performed “Nannto Nannto” with actress Nora ARMANI in Paris in February 2000.
“I used to have a love/hate relationship with my cello. That was when as a child the cello represented work, discipline, a kind of eternal suffering at the hands of merciless adults. Only later, along with my studies of composition, did I realize not only the potential of this magnificent instrument to express my deepest thoughts and feelings, but also my own potential to create new forms of expression of a more personal nature. My contact with the world of theatre in France has opened new paths for me. Here, the spoken word has long been intimately connected with the inflections found in music. My goal now is to find new ways to extend the expressive quality in a text, and bring out a poetic meaning not immediately apparent in the bare ‘sense' of a word.”
Aya Sakakibara