Sachie Kobayashi — composer and sound artist. 小林祥恵
English
Sachie Kobayashi (1990) is interested in intuitive creation and musical expression related to social phenomena.
Born in Kanagawa, Japan, she began studying piano at seven and composition at twenty.
She has received scholarships and grants including the Swiss Confederation Excellence Scholarship, the fellowship by the Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan), Nomura Foundation, and Kakehashi Foundation. After moving to Europe, her works were presented worldwide and she participated in numerous festivals. She has worked with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Reconcil, Ensemble Proton Bern, mdi Ensemble, percussion CYTi, Orchestre de la HEM, Ensemble 21, and The Geidai Philharmonia Orchestra.
From 2021 to 2022, she participated in the Cursus de composition et d'informatique musicale at IRCAM (Paris), supervised by Pierre Jodlowski. She was shortlisted for the ISCM World New Music Days 2021 and selected for Protonwerk no. 11 by Ensemble Proton Bern. She received a Special Mention at the Ars Electronica Forum Wallis Selection 2020 for her acousmatic works.
She collaborated with film director Daniel Künzi on the documentary pomme de discorde and with multidisciplinary artist Ekaterina Kostelskaya for video art. Recently, she has been involved in stage productions integrating video and concert.
In 2020, her piece I haven’t known you yet for orchestra and electronics premiered with the HEM Orchestra conducted by Pierre Bleuse.
She started her composing career while pursuing a second master’s degree in music theory education at Haute école de musique de Genève, after completing her composition master’s degree in 2020 with Michael Jarrell, Luis Naon, and Gilbert Nouno. She holds a bachelor's degree in Cultural Creative Studies from Aoyama Gakuin University and studied composition at Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) under Akio Yasuraoka. In 2018, she won the Acanthus Prize and Taito Mayor Prize.
Selected works & commissions
- Shifting (2022): commissioned by impuls and AVL Cultural Foundation; premiered by Klangforum Wien at impuls Festival, Graz, on 2 August 2023.
- être (2022), for clarinet d’amore and seven musicians: commissioned for Ensemble Proton Bern’s Protonwerk No.11.
- Day 0 / TRANS-INSTRUMENTALISM (2022), for performer, video, motion capture and electronics: developed during the IRCAM Cursus; performed by Corentin Marillier at Centre Pompidou on 24 September 2022.
- RêVeRie / TRANS-INSTRUMENTALISM (2025): a VR work presented with Ensemble Contrechamps at the Geneva International Film Festival.
- Babel / TRANS-INSTRUMENTALISM (in progress): an interactive audiovisual installation exploring voice, language and technological systems.
IRCAM & artistic research
During the IRCAM Cursus (2021–2022), she explored the relationship between movement, sound and video through Day 0 / TRANS-INSTRUMENTALISM, using the R-IoT motion sensor. The TRANS-INSTRUMENTALISM series continued with RêVeRie and the ongoing Babel installation. In 2023 she collaborated on multimedia and dance projects at Beaux-Arts de Paris; in 2024 she participated in a collaboration between Le Fresnoy and IRCAM.
IRCAM composer profile · IRCAM work record
Prizes & Scholarships
- Conseil d'État Prize, Geneva, Switzerland
- Leenaards Springboard Prize 2023 / HEM
- impuls. International Composition Competition 2023 (impuls Festival, Graz, Austria)
- Artist Grant 2021 (City of Geneva and Simon I. Patiño Foundation)
- Finalist Swiss Section 2021 (ISCM World Music Days)
- Artist Grant 2021–2023 (Nomura Foundation, Japan)
- Protonwerk No.11 (Ensemble Proton Bern)
- Scholarship 2021 (Kakehashi Foundation, Japan)
- Scholarship Fondation Hans Wilsdorf 2020 (Switzerland)
- Special Mention 2020 (Ars Electronica Forum Wallis)
- Artist Study Grant 2019 (Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship)
- Artist Grant 2019 (Program for Emerging Artists Abroad, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan)
- Taito City Mayor Award 2018
- Acanthus Award 2018
Education
- Computer Music Training program (Cursus)
Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (IRCAM), Paris, France (2021–2022) - Master of Arts in Music Education
Haute École de Musique de Genève, Switzerland (2020–2023) - Master of Arts in Composition and Music Theory
Haute École de Musique de Genève, Switzerland (2018–2020) - Bachelor of Arts in Composition
Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan (2014–2018)
Acanthus Award and Taito Ward Mayor Award - Bachelor of Arts in Cultural and Creative Studies
Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan (2009–2013)