​ AYANE KONDO
　　　  &
​Hanane Kondo

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

​

 Ayane Kondo draws on the knowledge and skills she acquired through her classical music studies, showcasing a diverse repertoire ranging from classical works to original compositions and improvisations.

She dedicates her artistic endeavors to the theme of dialogue with the universe, nature, and life. 

​​

​

Ayane Kondo graduated from the Percussion Department of Tokyo College of Music High School in 2011.

She began playing the piano at the age of 3 and percussion at the age of 9. Since 2014, she has frequently traveled to Germany and the Czech Republic to study the arts. She studied timpani under Michael Kroutil, principal timpanist of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and received a broad musical education from her father, conductor Hisatoshi Kondo. In the summer of 2016, she encountered the hammered dulcimer, a percussion-string instrument originating from the Middle East, and taught herself how to play it.

​

Currently, she works as a freelance musician, performing on percussion and hammered dulcimer, teaching percussion, piano, and music theory, coaching ensembles, and appearing in films.

​

Since August 2021, she has been expanding her career based in Berlin, Germany.

​

In March 2023, she signed an annual contract for five concerts with The Feuerle Collection, a private art museum in Berlin.
In the summer of 2023, she became the conductor of an amateur choir that rehearses at the Schöneberg City Hall in Berlin.
Since July 2023, she has been organizing "Ayane Kondo Presents FLOTTWELL Berlin Hotel Concert Series," a series of 4–5 concerts per year at FLOTTWELL Berlin Hotel.
In September 2024, she will perform 17 concerts at refugee centers as part of the KiA Program sponsored by Kia Motors.

​

International Activities:
July 2023 (Czech Republic): Guest timpanist at Akademie komorní hudby.
September 2023 (Czech Republic): Performed as a percussionist at Dvořák Prague Festival 23.
July 2024 (Czech Republic): Instructor at the International Association for Music Education in Prague.
August 2024 (Czech Republic): Guest timpanist and percussionist at ŠEVČÍK ACADEMY, performing with the academy’s orchestra at Young EURO Classic Festival at Konzerthaus Berlin.
September 2024 (Scotland): Performer at Beyond Borders Scotland Festival.

​

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.

​

​

​

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