Kanako Abe is a Japanese conductor, currently residing in Paris. Born in a family of musicians, Abe has been in contact with music since early age. After graduating from Tokyo National University of Arts, majoring in composition, Abe then studied in Paris Conservatoire. Abe started her musical career as a pianist.

 

In 2003, Kanako Abe started her debut as a conductor and ever since then, Abe has conducted various contemporary works along with “Ensemble L’Itinéraire”, “Ensemble Zellig”, “The Smash Ensemble (Spanyol)”, “Festival Octobre en Normandie”, “Venezia Biennnale Festival”, “Festival GMEM (Marseille)”, “Festival Controtempo in Villa Medici (Roma)”, and “Festival Musica de Strasbourg”.

 

In 2005, Kanako Abe established a French chamber orchestra for contemporary music, «Ensemble Multilatérale» and held a position as its Music Director. Collaborating with composers such as Martin Matalon, Jonathan Harvey, Michaël Lévinas and Régis Campo, Abe has made more than 90 world premieres. 

Currently Abe serves as Artistic Director of Musica Universalis, a new chamber ensemble for contemporary music based in Paris.

 

As a conductor with diverse aesthetic interest, Kanako Abe has worked with many conductors and stage directors such as Jerzy Semkow, Lawrence Foster, Enrique Mazzola, Alain Altinoglu, Friedemann Layer, Yutaka Sado, René Koering, Jean-Paul Scarpitta, Francisco Negrin, Moshe Leiser, and Patrice Caurier. In 2012, Abe won the PRIX ITALIA, performing Sebastian Rivas’ Opera Radio. In the same year, Abe collaborated with UNESCO and the Japanese embassy to conduct a charity concert for the victims of Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Abe served as the assistant conductor of Fabio Luisi in “Festival della Valle d'Itria”, summer 2014 in Italy. Since 2012, Abe also serves as the President of French-Japanese Association of Contemporary Music.

 

Her first arrival in Indonesia in 2013 brought Kanako Abe into the establishment of IYSO in 2014, in which Abe holds as the Music Director.