​ AYANE KONDO
　　　  &
​Hanane Kondo

 Percussion, Timpani and Hammered Dulcimer player, music composition, arrangement and Painter/Psychological counselor

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​Ayane Kondo: Multiple Percussionist
Ayane Kondo draws on her classical music training to perform a wide-ranging repertoire, from traditional works to original compositions and improvisations inspired by themes such as dialogue with the universe and nature. Influenced by her father, conductor Hisaatsu Kondo, she began making music at the age of two. In 2011, she graduated from the percussion department of the Tokyo College of Music High School, and in 2014, she began private studies with Michael Kroutil, timpanist of the Czech Philharmonic. After winning 4th Prize in the 2020 World BACH Competition (Instrumental Professional, Hammered Dulcimer Solo), she relocated to Berlin, where she is currently recognized as the only professional hammered dulcimer player in Germany. Her activities encompass solo and chamber recitals as well as orchestral appearances on timpani and other percussion instruments. Her international engagements include serving as guest timpanist at the Akademie komorní hudby in the Czech Republic (2023) and performing as a percussionist at the Dvořák Prague Festival (2023). In 2024, she appeared as guest timpanist and percussionist at the Ševčík Academy, performing with the academy’s orchestra at the Young EURO Classic Festival at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
Highlights of her recent career include a five-concert contract with The Feuerle Collection in Berlin, her appointment as conductor of an amateur choir at Berlin’s Rathaus Schöneberg, and her role as curator of the “Ayane Kondo Presents – FLOTTWELL Berlin Hotel Concert Series,” for which she has programmed four concerts annually since 2023. In August 2024, she gave a recital at Traquair House in Scotland, performing both percussion and hammered dulcimer. From September 2024 through 2025, she is performing around 18 concerts each year at refugee centers in Berlin as part of the KiA Program sponsored by Kia Motors. Beyond performing, Kondo is a dedicated educator. Each summer, she shares her expertise as a percussion instructor at the I-AME Summer Music Academy in Prague, mentoring aspiring international musicians. With a portfolio that ranges from intimate solo programs to large-scale collaborative projects, Ayane Kondo continues to expand the expressive possibilities of percussion and hammered dulcimer on stages across Europe and beyond. Since 2022, she has also been active in the film industry, composing music for films and appearing as an actress, further broadening the scope of her artistic activities.

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Activities in Japan:
She is actively engaged in music education across Japan, working with wind orchestras, university and high school music clubs, and individual musicians. As a composer and arranger, she specializes in percussion pieces, hammered dulcimer works, wind and percussion ensembles, and small ensemble pieces for unique instrumental combinations.

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Musical Biography of Ayane Kondo

 

Till becoming a percussionist: “caught by the sounds of percussions”

 

Music has always been around me since I was in my mother’s belly. When my mother had me, listening to music as prenatal care was in trend. Regardless of its fashion, my mother was a devotee of all genres of music, such as classic, jazz, Japanese Enka, rock, etc. On the other hand, my father was a talented musician since early childhood. He used to be a sojourner in Berlin for his musical study at the Hochschule der Künste (HdK) in the 1970s as a privileged student receiving a Japanese government scholarship. He continued his career as a horn player in Orchester-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker and has worked as a conductor and a docent after returning to Japan. This musical life biography of my father was the main topic I had been told since childhood―thus, Berlin has seized me as a space where I might make my future home just like my father did.

 

Just like mundane families that are enthusiastic about music or art, I have been through many musical instruments since I was a child. None of them felt right for me. One day I was in a concert hall with my father where he had to perform. At his office, he asked me, “which instrument is the best fit for you?” while the orchestra was playing for the rehearsal, I sat down in the empty audience and started to observe the instruments being played. The sounds playing out from a section of the orchestra caught my ears; the percussion added an essence of brilliance and dynamic to the orchestra. At first, I fell in love with the sound of percussion instruments. Since then, my interest in percussion instruments has never gone away.

 

Discovering Hammered Dulcimer/

In the sizzling summer of 2016, I was invited to a tiny concert in a small instrument shop in Asagaya. Without anticipating any forthcoming life-changing event, I picked up the program's brochure. On the stage, a Japanese musician was playing Native American music and classic music with an exotic Instrument, which I had not ever seen. The tone was deep, bright as if listening to a pipe organ, and shiny as if seeing the light reflecting through the window of a grand cathedral. Though I was a percussion and  marimba player, I intuitionally figured out it was the tone I had long dreamed of.

 

Philosophy of my Art: “connecting body with the mind, by playing”

 

Music, more precisely playing instruments, is a sensual bodily experience investigating my emotions―that is, playing is an attempt to connect my physical body to the mind. To be inspired, I capture lively substance, but not human-related things, which would rather be a part of nature on earth. When my mind pays attention to all the human-related issues, my body suffers from the complexity of the problems and lack of ability to unravel the riddles. To be grounded in myself, I, again, pay attention to playing a piece of rhythm and melody which transform from my movements of fingers to sound. What I can suggest to my fellow citizens is a short moment at which we, indeed, can be at peace with music composed of a piece of rhythm and melody. And, hopefully, as an artist, this lifelong-lasting habit of playing can contribute to changing moments of their life.        24.12.2022      

         　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Written by Junsang Lee