ISAJI, Sunao

Sunao Isaji is engaged in a wide range of activities extending from composition of contemporary music and improvisational performance to live performances of Brazilian music and popular songs from the Shōwa era. He is also an avid football and film fan as well as having a strong interest in subjects such as Japanese history, period dramas and ethnology.
Pieces by him have appeared on the CD Tetro Saudade (FOCD2565). His activities have included creation of a radio opera entitled Closed-Door Acoustic Drama ‘Blood Wedding’ broadcast on the NHK FM radio station, production as art director of Avant-Garde in Music: The Arrival in Japan of John Cage, performance at the opening concert of the Jacques Tati Festival, presentation of Nanban Yakai: Solo Exhibition by Sunao Isaji, composition of the Gagaku piece Murasaki Goten Monogatari, and Yumenoyu Meguri Koe no Michiyuki, a joint music and video production combining Shōmyō Buddhist chant with Noh chanting (utai), traditional folk music and pop music commissioned by the Tokyo Cultural Promotion Project. He presented special concerts at Izumi Hall in Osaka under the sponsorship of the Suntory Foundation for the Arts in 2005 and 2012. As a performer he gives live concerts as a member of the groups Banda Choro Elétrico and Caderno Japonica.
He has received first prize in the Japan Music Competition, the Composition Prize of the Japan Society for Contemporary Music, the Akutagawa Composition Prize and the Idemitsu Music Prize.