Toyama International Contemporary Music Festival
~Celebrate music today, Live~
Soloists :
Piano : Bryan Pezzone
Bryan Pezzone maintains an active freelance performing and recording career and has been
based in the Los Angeles area since 1987. He holds a degree from the Eastman School of Music, and is well known as a versatile performer who is comfortable in classical, contemporary and improvisational styles.
He performs with nearly every established orchestra in Southern California such as :
the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra,
the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
the NewWest Symphony,
the Pasadena Symphony,
the Long Beach Symphony,
Muse-Ique, the Los
Angeles Master Chorale, and many others.
Bryan was the principal pianist with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra from its inception in 1991 through 1999. From 1987-2000 he was the chair and founder of the multi-focused Keyboard program at the California Institute of the Arts. Beginning in the fall term 2017, Bryan joined the faculty of the Los Angeles College of Music.
Violin : Johnna Wu
Johnna Wu is an active performer and improviser in North America, Europe, and Asia. She is the founder and artistic director of the electro-acoustic ensemble PinkNoise. In 2015, she was the only artist awarded the Fulbright scholarship to pursue research in Germany, and was sponsored by the State Department of the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. She graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts with double degrees in Biology and Musicology and obtained a Masters of Music degree in violin performance at The Juilliard School. Her most recent appearances include performances at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Paris Philharmonie, Guangzhou Opera House, and the Banff Centre in Canada. She serves on the faculty and is a co-curator for the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.
Laptop Improviser : Simon Kanzler
Simon Kanzler is a composer, laptop improviser and vibraphonist based in New York.
He has a diverse musical background both as an improviser—originally on the vibraphone and in recent years primarily on his self-made modular software instrument—and as a composer, working with a broad range of musicians including new music ensembles, jazz bands, improvisers, heavy metal and rock musicians. He has recently focused on live-electronics as a means to expand the sound of acoustic instruments and to create a dialogue between musicians and the computer.
He is the Co-Founder, Co-Artistic and Technical director of the New York-based ensemble PinkNoise, with whom he performs on his live-computer instrument and has worked in close collaboration on many projects. His music has also been performed by new music groups such as the S.E.M Ensemble, Tedarim Ensemble, ensemble mosaik and the modern art ensemble.
He has studied composition with Mauro Lanza at the UdK Berlin from 2015 to 2017 and jazz vibraphone with David Friedman at the Jazz-Institute Berlin from 2009 to 2013. Computer music has become his primary research focus since 2018 and is now an essential ingredient in all of his work, for which he creates his own software. Currently, he is attending the IRCAM Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music 2022/2023 in Paris.
Kanzler is the founder of the KIM collective Berlin that organizes a yearly festival for experimental music, the KIM Fest in Berlin. The collective has recently cooperated with the Jazzfest Berlin, for which Kanzler created a multichannel sound-installation in 2018 and participated in the creation of “Mass of Hyphae” a fungus opera, that was performed at the Jazzfest Berlin 2019.
He has released four albums of his band projects Talking Hands, Double Identity and Nodía Es on the labels Unit records and WhyPlayJazz. His most recent album Nodía Es combines a heavy metal band and a vocal ensemble and was produced at the rbb studios in Berlin and released in 2020.
Composers for inaugural concert
Born in Milan in 1984, Stefano Sacchi is a versatile Italian artist, excelling as a composer, orchestrator, conductor, musicologist, and music therapist. He honed his skills in music composition at the prestigious Istituto Musicale "G. Donizetti" in Bergamo and furthered his education at the esteemed Conservatorio di Musica "G. Verdi" in Milan.He earned his degree in Film Production from S.T.Ar.S (Science and Technology of Performing Art and Entertainment) at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Brescia. In2014, he successfully completed the Certificate Program in Film Scoring at the University o fCalifornia, Los Angeles. Additionally, he holds degrees in Musicology from the University of Bologna and in Music Therapy from the Conservatorio G. Frescobaldi in Ferrara.
Presently, he is actively engaged in collaborating with diverse film and TV productions, contributing as a composer, arranger, and orchestrator for a wide spectrum of projects, including music for film, television, documentaries, commercials, and video games.
His musical compositions have garnered recognition and acclaim, having been performed and recorded by illustrious orchestras such as the Hollywood Studio Symphony, the Brandenburg State Orchestra, the Budapest Scoring Symphonic Orchestra, the Bulgarian National Radio Symphonic Orchestra, and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
Noteworthy accolades include Global Music Awards for his scores in the short-films Milo-n the Moon and A Teddy Child. Additionally, many of his orchestral works earned nominations at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards from 2014 to 2018.
Beyond his accomplishments in the realm of composition, Stefano is deeply involved in education, conducting seminars and workshops on the Dramaturgy of Music and Sound in Audiovisuals, as well as offering an "Introduction to Film Scoring." His teaching engagements extend to collaborations with various universities and music schools.
Stefano Sacchi
Ryuji Kubota
Ryuji Kubota, born in Tokyo on October 13, 1965, is a self-taught composer. He studied Japanese contemporary literature at Hosei University (B.A.) His competition honors include the 3rd prize in the
2001 Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (given by the judge Oliver Knussen) , and the 3rd prize in the 2013 Karol Szymanowski International Composers Competition in Katowice, Poland. And his orchestral
pieces performed in International Composition Competition Alfred Schnittke 2018 and Sofia Symphonic
Summit 2022 at Sofia, Bulgaria. Some his chamber pieces were performed at Hamburg,Weimar, Körner, Lüneburg, Rügen, Katowice, Zakopane and Tokyo.
Born in Toyama, Japan, lives in Hamilton, Canada.
Chikako Iversen is a Jazz-oriented orchestral and chamber music and Jazz composer / conductor and Jazz flutist.
Her work has been performed by the Puerto Rico Symphony, Moravian Philharmonic in Olomouc, Czech Republic, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Song of the Angels Flute Orchestra and many chamber ensembles and Jazz big band and ensembles. She was produced the CD commissioned by a double contra bass flutist Roland Tso to compose and produce an album, which available on iTunes, Amazon music and other musical site, called "Tso's Prayer". She is also the co-founder of San Diego Taiko where she opened the World Baseball Classic in 2009 with her bamboo flute solo performance.
Her life work is to dedicate her composition to build a bridge between Japanese culture and the world. Many of her compositions have been based on Japanese folk stories, such “A Grateful Crane” and “Bamboo hat Jizoh.” Other compositions such as “Chi-no-wa” also draw upon Japanese mythology and iconic historical stories.
She has received many awards such as
"Best Sound Track / Counter Histories: Rock Hill (Culture & Diversity Film Festival) ", IMA 7th award Vox Populi (New Age) as akiko/firebird999 (Tea drops from heaven), ISC semifinalist / Amagoi (Violin-piano duo), Runners up award / Song of the year contest (Hace mucho Tiempo), Hollywood Music Award nomination / New Age (Love Forever) and more ...
Chikako Iversen is also the producer of the acclaimed concert series “The Depicted Vibrations,” which started in 2014 and has had 12 volumes to date. Each concert features new music of contemporary composers and a variety of artists and instrumentation. Chikako wants to deliver the audience the latest new music and many different colors of orchestration.
Chikako Iversen
