Graduate composer Minato Sakamoto's "Pacific 21" presented at the Society of Composers National Conference

View the video of the concert (Minato Sakamoto's "Pacific 21" is at 33:34)

View the complete concert program.

Minato Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, and improviser from Osaka. Ranging from classical concert music to electronic music with heavy uses of computational technologies, his compositions practice the unserious seriously, fuse spontaneous and organic qualities, and demonstrate a clear connection to the past. He has collaborated with leading ensembles/groups including Crossing Borders Music, Playground Ensemble, Hypercube, Boston New Music Initiative, Phasma Music, 8 Strings & a Whistle, and Righteous GIRLS.

Minato is currently a Ph.D. fellow in composition at Duke University. He previously studied at Amherst College, graduating summa cum laude in 2018. His current and past composition teachers include Stephen Jaffe, John Supko, Scott Lindroth, John McDonald, and Eric Sawyer.

Minato is a Japanese chess lover and an Accredited Meteorologist of the Japan Meteorological Agency. As a railway addict, Minato constantly wastes his time exploring unique railways in the world. Favorite composer: Johannes Brahms. Favorite locomotive: China Railway DF4 Type.

"Pacific 231 (1923) for orchestra by Arthur Honegger has been one of the greatest accomplishments in the two-century-long tradition of 'railway music.' With insistent repetitions grouped in different clusters and a sense of acceleration and deceleration, the piece presents various musical characteristics that have been typical in this heritage. As a composer and enthusiastic train lover who often composes train-themed pieces, I have always wondered: what can I add to this rich tradition without indulging in such old train nostalgia? Expressing my desire for free mobility, my Pacific 231 draws on various railway sound materials over the Pacific Ocean and presents railway music in the twenty-first century, the era of technological innovation and globalization." (MS)