Sawai Kazue
沢井 一恵
Koto
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Kazue Sawai is a 17-string bass koto player as well as a standard 13-string one with a wide repertoire ranging from koto classics to contemporary commissioned works as well as collaborations with jazz musicians. She began her studies at the age of eight with Michio Miyagi and graduated from Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. She made debut at joint recital with her husband, Tadao Sawai. She is a co-founder with husband of the Sawai Koto Institute in Tokyo. Since 1978, she has toured widely as soloist, with her Koto Ensemble and in joint recitals with Tadao Sawai, pianist Aki Takahashi, and percussionist Sumire Yoshihara, appearing in concerts in Brazil, France, Germany, England, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Australia and USA as well as concerts in Japan. In addition she has appeared at major festivals: Border Crossing Festival ’90 (Toronto), Chamber Music/LA Festival ’90, Bang-On-A-Can ’89 & 90 (NY), Kodaly Music Festival ’87 (Hungary), West Berlin Festival ’81, Netherlands Festival ’79, Metamusik Festival ’78 (Berlin), Festival d’Automne ’78 (Paris), Tanglewood ’78 (USA). She has just performed at the Kennedy Center, Washing D.C. in October ’90. In recent years, an exponent of contemporary music, she has collaborated with young composer/musicians and premiered their works such as John Zorn’s at the Bang-On-A-Can Festival, David Behrman, Carl Stone and Kazuo Uehara’s at Music From Japan ’90 (NY), Christian Wolff and John Cage’s at Studio 200 ’89 (Tokyo), and Takashi Kako’s koto concerto ’85. She has also worked with Yuji Takahashi, Ned Rothenberg and John King. Kazue Sawai has received numerous awards and grants, including grants from Japan Foundation, Art Festival Excellent Performance Prize (79), and USA RCA record incentive award (72). In 1988, she spent a year in New York on ACC grant collaborating with American composers and players, and gave lecture-concerts at many universities in US.
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Students
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Albums
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Midare - Kazue Sawai Plays Koto Classics |
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Wind is Calling Me Outside, The - Kazue Sawai Plays Yuji Takahashi |
Tracks Recorded
