Noh singer

Ryoko Aoki

Ryoko Aoki holds a unique position in the field of Noh theatre as a female singer and performer. She has
performed in several traditional Noh plays, historically the reserve of male actors. Above all, she is thepioneer of and inspiration for a new artistic form combining Noh with contemporary music. More than 50works have been written for her by various composers including Peter Eötvös, Toshio Hosokawa, Stefano
Gervasoni, José María Sánchez-Verdú and Oliver Schneller.

The singer and performer has made appearances in Tokyo, Kyoto, Long Beach, Paris, Rome, London, Dublin,Bilbao, Budapest, Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Karlsruhe among others, and at festivals including theAsia-Pacific Weeks Berlin, Bartok Festival Szombathely, Xenakis Festival in New York and the Takefu
International Music Festival. She has performed with ensembles and orchestras including the Arditti Quartet,
the Quatour Diotima and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.
In 2013, Ryoko Aoki made her debut at the Teatro Real de Madrid in Wolfgang Rihm’s opera The Conquestof Mexico in the role of Malinche, in a production directed by Pierre Audi. In 2016 she premiered Noriko

Baba’s "Nopera" AOI with the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris. During the 2017/18 season Ryoko Aoki performed
the world premieres of two works composed for her: Toshio Hosokawa’s Futari Shizuka (The Maiden fromthe Sea) with the Ensemble intercontemporain at the Philharmonie de Paris and Kölner Philharmonie as well
as Federico Gardella’s Two Souls at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. She also gave her debut at
the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in a concert conducted by Matthias Pintscher.
Highlights of Ryoko Aoki’s 2018/19 season included performances of Toshio Hosokawa’s Futari Shizuka atthe University of Toronto and during the TIMF Festival in Tongyeong/Korea as well as the world premiere ofPeter Eötvös’ Secret kiss with the Gageego Ensemble at the Konserthus Gothenburg, followed byperformances at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, at Casa da Musica Porto with Remix Ensemble and at Auditorio
Nacional Madrid with Plural Ensemble.
Ryoko Aoki starts the 2019/20 season with Secret kiss with Ensemble Musikfabrik in Berlin, Cologne andBudapest. Another highlight will be the performance of Futari Shizuka with the Talea Ensemble in New Yorkin March.
As part of her NohxContemporary Music project, Ryoko Aoki has commissioned a series of new works forNohsinger.

In2014,

shereleasedaNohxContemporaryMusic

recording,includingPeterEötvös’ Harakiri. As a workshop leader, she has worked with the dance company Sasha Waltz and Guests.
Ryoko Aoki obtained a BA and a Master of Music from the Faculty of Music at the Tokyo National Universityof Fine Art and Music with a focus on the Kanze school of Noh theatre, before obtaining a PhD at theUniversity of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, with a thesis on "Women and Noh". She wasappointed "Japan Cultural Envoy" by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japanese government in 2015 andwas a featured artist at the Aichi Triennale in 2016.
2019/20 season
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unlessexpressly authorised by the artist management.

CONTACT
Adriana Kussmaulak(at)karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-227

Official website https://ryokoaoki.net/