About
Born in Yokohama Japan, Rei Munakata is a conductor and composer in the field of Classical modern music. Imaginative creativity, experimental curiosity, detailed handcraft, and musical fluidity as the core, Rei Munakata conducts, composes and leads instrumental workshops and composition workshops for chamber musicians, ensembles, orchestras, instruments, and sound objects all over the world.
Conductor
Curious Chamber Players, Sweden - Artistic director/conductor
Rei Munakata is currently the artistic director and the principal conductor of the Curious Chamber Players Sweden. Experimentation and curiosity as the ensemble profile, Munakata and the group have been continuously exploring new ideas and concert frames since 2003. Munakata led the group to a successful breakthrough at Darmstädter ferienkurse in 2012, followed by immediate return to Darmstadt and invitations to the world’s leading new music festivals such as IMPULS Graz, Time of Music Viitasaari, Gaudeamus Muziekweek Utrecht, Ultraschal Festival Berlin, Sound Scotland, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, Sampler series Barcelona, Klang Avantgarde Festival Copenhagen, Estonian Music Days, MATA New York, Contrasti Trento, Daegu Contemporary International, and Borusan series Istanbul. In recent years, Munakata and the group have toured in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Munakata frequently work with Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, Esbjerg Ensemble, and Gageego! Göteborg, and has guest conducted Norbotten NEO Piteå, Ensemble Mosaik Berlin, Ensemble Aleph Paris, Kammarensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Oslo Sinfonietta, Aarhus Sinfonietta, SMASH Ensemble Salamanca, Distractfold Ensemble Manchester, and Klangforum Wien. He had been also the main conductor for Ensemble Mimitabu Göteborg.
Munakata is also a passionate educator. For the past ten years, Munakata have been closely collaborating with Esbjerg Ensemble to give composition workshop for young composers in Denmark, and with Gotlandsmusiken to collaborate with composition students from Gotland School of Music Composition. He regularly gives contemporary music workshop at Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, Academy of Music and Drama Göteborg, and StanisÅ‚aw Moniuszko Academy of Music in GdaÅ„sk.
Composer
Rei Munakata has composed music for instrumental chamber groups, ensembles, electronic music, sound installations, and various kinds of daily life objects. In his recent works, Munakata experiments with the identities of various compositional events and their boundaries. He challenges himself for surreal world of connotation by superimposing his personal memories and life experiences.
Munakata’s works are performed worldwide and his recent works include the ensemble work Shinshin (2023), a reflection of the composer’s total Taiwanese experience during the Curious Chamber Players Taiwan tour, the orchestral work Ranai Renai (2024) commissioned by YeongNam Philharmonic Daegu exploring the sense of unreachable through electric toothbrushes, Bubure (2023) for dancer Momoka Kihara and cellist Alexandra Hallén questioning borders and identities of aging sound movement through bike pump and bunny soft toy, the amplified ensemble work Dro (2022), written for the Cabinet of Curiosities Tokyo, in which large amount of soy beans are splashed all over the stage.
Munakata received the second prize award from Via Nova International Composition Competition of XI. Weimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik and Ensemble Marges in 2010, followed by winning the Call for Scores SoundOn Festival of New Music La Jolla as well as performances all over the US by San Diego based NOISE. His music was selected as a part of project “Ensemble 2010” to collaborate with Ensemble Modelo62 Den Haag during Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2010. This led his return to the festival with his new work for Curious Chamber Players Stockholm in 2012. In 2013, Munakata made his debut in Netherlands during Gaudeamus Music Week.
In 2014, Munakata was granted a long-term residency in Poland by Swedish Konstnärsnamnden to collaborate with ensemble Kwartludium Warsaw/Gdansk. The resulting work, skiego (2015), is the composer’s reflection of recent Polish history and personal memory from the stay in Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, and Sopot. During the project, Munakata was also invited to compose for NeoQuartet Gdansk, and participated in their project Neoarte – New Music Spectrum 2016. His string quartet Pleats (2016), based on Polish pierogi and warmness of family tradition, was performed in Moscow, Gdansk, Härnösand, and Berlin.
Educator
Rei Munakata specialises in interpreting music by young composers of various artistic styles, ideas, and aesthetics. For the past 10 years, he has annually collaborated with Esbjerg Ensemble Denmark, Det Jysk Musikkonservatorium Denmark, and Gotland School of Composition Sweden to give composition workshops for young composers.
Munakata has been invited to give workshop in music universities all over the world, for example, Högskolan för scen ooh musik vid Göteborgs Universitet, the Royal Academy of Music Copenhagen, Birmingham Conservatoire, Cambridge University, Aichi University of Fine Arts, Darmstadt Summer Course, and Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya, as well as in contemporary music festival such as Bludenz Contemporary Music Festival, Time of Music Viitasaari, Gaudeamus Utrecht, Daegu International Contemporary, to name a few.
Munakata also gave annual instrumental workshops for young instrumental students at the Academy of Music in Gdansk, Poland. The intense five days course consisted of instrumental interpretation, detailed work on instrumental extended techniques, analysis of composer’s intention and personalities, as well as ensemble performance practice and communication, with an official concert as the conclusion of the workshop.
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