Maki Ishii — La Sen
La-Sen is an amazing example of Maki Ishii’s mastery of chamber music. The players in this work elegantly float over each other as the contrasting ideas create a world of sounds and space.
Number of Players: 7 Difficulty: Grade 5 Instrumentation:
Player I: Flauto
Player II: Oboe
Player III: Sistro
Player IV: Capanetta
Player V: Piatto
Player VI: Arpa
Player VII: Piano
Makii Ishii was born on May 28th, 1936 in Tokyo as the third son of Baku Ishii, the celebrated dancer and choreographer who played a pioneering role in establishing the genre of modern dance in Japan. After studying composition and conducting from 1952 to 1958 in Tokyo he moved to Berlin where he continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin (West), as student of e.g. Josef Rufer and Boris Blacher. In 1962 he returned to Japan. In 1969 he was invited to Berlin by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to take part in their “Berliner Künstlerprogramm”. Since then he has been active there as well as in Japan as a composer and conductor. His compositions have been performed all over the world. Concerts as “Composer’s Portrait of Maki Ishii” have been held in Paris at the Festival d’Automne 1978, at the Berliner Festwochen 1981, in Geneva at the Été Japonais 1983, in Tokyo at the Music Today 1987, at the Suntory Music Foundation Orchestral Concert 1989, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra 1990, in the Hague at the Residentie Orchestra 1992, to name but a few.
-Annotated by Noah Rosen