Artist Profile
Kei Ito
Born in Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture. Graduated from the Department of Instrumental Music, Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2001. In 2004, he won the first prize at the 6th Japan Clarinet Competition. In 2006, she was selected for the 74th Japan Music Competition. Performed in the Tokyo Opera City Recital Series "B to C Bach to Contemporary" in 2012. Performed the premieres of Sachiko Uchida's "Jugemu Jugemu" and Junchu Otaka's "Fantasy". After working with the Philharmonia of the University of the Arts and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, he is currently the principal clarinetist of the NHK Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, he performed the Japan premiere of "Yun Yi-Sang Clarinet Concerto" at the Tokyo University of the Arts' "Forest of Creation," and also performed with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras in Japan and abroad. In 2017, he released a solo album "Reveusement Revezman: Indigo Songs" from Fontec, and in 2022, "Reger Clarinet Sonatas" and "Mind Clarinet Pieces" from Rec-Lab, both of which were selected as semi-selected recordings by Recording Arts magazine. He has studied clarinet under Susumu Sengoku, Hiroyuki Hibino, Yusuke Noda, Shoji Yamamoto, Hidemi Sankai, and Yuji Murai. In addition to his activities as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player, he also teaches younger students as an adjunct associate professor at the Tokyo College of Music and as a lecturer at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and Kunitachi College of Music. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)