Pianist Tomoki Sakata, whose vividly active career has taken him to concert stages around the world, presents his new work, Nocturnes – Fragments, after poems by Edgar Allan Poe, for female voice and orchestra, in its world premiere on Saturday, July 18, 2026, at Kanagawa Prefectural Music Hall. The work was commissioned by the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra. We are pleased to announce that the score and parts materials for this work are now available for rental through Zen-On.
Beyond his acclaimed pianism, Sakata has in recent years devoted himself with great enthusiasm to composition. This new work marks his second commission from the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, following Portrait pour orchestre in 2025. For this premiere, soprano Mari Moriya joins the orchestra, with Sakata himself on the podium, depicting Romanticism at its most extreme, set within the world of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry.
■Concert details
Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra
Ongakudo Series 37th “Classic Modern”
Date: 18 July 2026 (Sat.)
Open: 15:00
Place: Kanagawa Prefectural Music Hall
Conductor, Piano: Tomoki Sakata
Soprano: Mari Moriya
Orchestra: Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra
■Tomoki SAKATA: "Nocturnes - Fragments" after poems by Edgar Allan Poe for female
voice and orchestra (2026)
Commissioned by Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2(II=cbn)-4.0.0.0-hp-str, female voice
Duration: approximately 15 minutes
*Parts on hire.
[Tomoki Sakata]
Japanese pianist Tomoki Sakata “demonstrated virtuosity, considerable color and expressivity” (Dallas Morning News) during the 2013 Cliburn Competition, earning him a place among the top six finalists. Since just 19 years old, he has been building a reputation for a “youthful overabundance of talent” that creates “its own visceral excitement” (Theater Jones).
Mr. Sakata won the 4th prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2021, and the 1st Prize along with 6 special prizes at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition 2016 in Budapest by a unanimous vote.
He has made recital, chamber and concerto appearances throughout Europe, Asia, the U.S.A and Africa, in such major concert halls as Leipzig Gewandhaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Rudolfinum, Müpa Budapest, Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Salle Cortot, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Teatro Grande di Brescia, and Suntory Hall, as soloist with Staatskapelle Halle, Belgian National Orchestra, Czech National Symphony, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Hungarian Radio Symphony, Hungarian State Opera, Sofia Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Orchestre Phiharmonique du Maroc, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, working with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Alexander Lazarev, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Vladimír Válek, Sascha Goetzel, Jonathon Heyward, Howard Griffiths, Hugh Wolff, János Kovács, Andrea Battistoni, Tadaaki Otaka, Eiji Oue, and Kazushi Ono, as a chamber musician, working with the members of Tokyo Quartet, Brentano Quartet, to name a few. His performances have been broadcast on the Radio and TV in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, the U.S.A., and Japan.
Sakata has been invited in numerous international music festivals, including Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Kissinger Sommer (Germany), Beethovenfest Bonn (Germany), International Music Festival “Janáčkův máj” (Czech Republic), Brussels Piano Festival (Belgium), International Festival “Musical Kremlin” (Russia), and Spring Festival in Tokyo (Japan).
Also active as a composer and arranger, Mr. Sakata’s works have been performed at major concert halls in Japan by leading artists. His piano arrangements are published by Ongaku no Tomo Edition.
He made his debut as a conductor with the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, conducting 2 Mozart Concertos from the keyboard and Japan Premiere of a symphonic work by Liszt, in February 2022.
Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1993, Mr. Sakata began piano lessons at the age of 5 and began improvising and composing at age 6. He studied composition under Masayuki Nagatomi and Hinoharu Matsumoto. He had been a private student of Paul Badura-Skoda for 10 years since the age of 16. Sakata was admitted as a youngest student of The Lake Como International Piano Academy, where he had taken masterclasses by Dimitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, and Tamás Vásáry.
Please contact Japan Arts if you wish to edit this biography.
Contact Us
Composers and Repertoire, Hire Library
Zen-On Music Co., Ltd.
2-13-3 Kami-ochiai, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo 161-0034, Japan
Tel.: +81-3-3227-6283
Fax.: +81-3-3227-6288
hirelibrary@zen-on.co.jp