ARTIST BIO:

Born in Chitose, Japan, Sato Matsui is a Paris-based composer whose style draws influence from traditional Japanese sonorities as well as her training as a classical violinist. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of IMAGO, a chamber music ensemble in Paris that specializes in both traditional repertoire and original creations with a strongly cross-disciplinary approach. Matsui holds her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Juilliard School and her Bachelor’s degree from Williams College.

Her recent projects include a commission for a flute concerto for Carol Wincenc, which premiered at the 2023 National Flute Association Gala Concert at Symphony Hall in Phoenix, Arizona. In April of this year, Matsui’s Oiseau Lunaire received its U.S. premiere at Carnegie Hall by pianist Will Healy. In 2022, her trio Hanasaka Jiisan for oboe, bassoon, and piano was commissioned by Cornelia Sommer for the International Double Reed Conference in Denver, Colorado. Matsui’s large ensemble piece Kinokonoko, commissioned for the New Juilliard Ensemble, received its Lincoln Center premiere at Alice Tully Hall in 2019.

A lover of interdisciplinary collaborations, she worked with the Lebanese makeup artist Michel El Ghoul and dancers-choreographers Gildas Lemonier and Quentin Lelong to produce a glow-in-the-dark dance piece called Trois apparitions de la nuit for her Ensemble IMAGO in Paris. In 2020, she was invited by the New York City Ballet to take part in the New York Choreographic Institute, where she collaborated with choreographer Jonathan Faulry. Matsui’s original scoring of Shakespeare’s play As You Like It was produced and directed by Ian Belknap in 2019 at the McClelland Drama Theater in Lincoln Center.

In 2019, Matsui received a Fulbright Scholarship and moved to Paris in order to research the manuscripts of Erik Satie for her doctoral dissertation. She is the winner of the 2019 Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.