Kuniko Kato Live in The Blue Hall, NYU Abu Dhabi

Kuniko Kato studied under the legendary marimba player Keiko Abe at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo and advanced her studies with Robert Van Sice at the Rotterdam Conservatoire, graduating with honours as the first percussionist in the institution’s history. After graduating she was based in Europe for ten years, winning major awards including the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis from the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt in 1996. In 1997 she recorded James Wood’s Marimba Concerto in London and in 1999 released her first solo album, To the Earth.

Career highlights include the Japanese premiere of the music theatre production of The Pure Land by James Wood in 2005, a story based on Yukio Mishima’s novel The Priest of Shiga Temple and his Love. In 2006 Kato performed the percussion concerto.

Cassiopeia by Toru Takemitsu as part of the Takemitsu Memorial Concert at Tokyo Opera City. The performance was recorded live for a limited edition CD. She gave a solo recital in 2008 at Sao Paulo University as part of the first International Percussion Festival, later that year appearing at the Monday Evening Concert series in Los Angeles, at the Vancouver New Music Society, and giving the Japanese premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Double Concerto at the Suntory Summer Festival. In 2009 she created a new live performance Sound Space Experiment – Steel Drum Works in Tokyo, giving the world premiere of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, for steel pans, marimba, and vibraphone. Her association with Reich continued with her critically acclaimed CD Kuniko Plays Reich, released in 2011 and featuring multi-tracked arrangements of the composer’s classic 1980s minimalist works. In 2013 she received the Keizo Saji Award from the Suntory Arts Foundation for her live concert performances of Kuniko Plays Reich in Kyoto. She has gone on to make highly successful recordings of works by Arvo Pärt and Iannis Xenakis.

Kato’s versatility has led her to collaborations with the Netherlands Dance Theatre dancer Megumi Nakamura, the theatre director Satoshi Miyagi, and Za Ondecoza, a Japanese taiko drumming group. She has also produced commercial music for television and directed and performed the music theatre work The Key by Lod in Belgium. Strongly committed to music education she has run percussion workshops, masterclasses, and open rehearsals. Since 2004 she has worked in Japan with children with learning difficulties, including a series of log drum workshops.