POLIN Music Festival: Akane Sakai

Born in Nagoya, Japan, Akane began her piano studies at early age under the influence of her mother. Having graduated from the Toho-Gakuen School of Music in the class of Midori Miura, she was granted First Prize for excellence and continued her education with Prof. Alan Weiss at the Lemmens instituut in Belgium, and later with Lilya Zilberstein and Pavel Gililov.

Akane was awarded the “Young Artist Development Prize” by the Japanese minister of culture, and obtained scholarship from the Yellow Angel Foundation Japan. She regularly appears at the musical scenes such as Philharmonie de Paris, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Theatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Triphony Hall in Tokyo etc.

Akane was invited to perform with renowned orchestras including the Kremerata Baltica, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestra DellaSvizzera Italiana, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Vedernikov, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Naoto Otomo and Hubert Sudant. She is also a frequent guest at various music festivals, such as La roque d’Antheron (France), La folle journée Nantes and Tokyo (France, Japan), Chopin and his Europe (Poland), Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano (Switzerland) ) Rhur  Klavier  Festival (Germany) and the Pacific Music Festival (Japan).

Always enthusiastic to play chamber music, Akane has performed with outstanding artists such as Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Ivry Gitlis, Nicholas Angelich, Evgeni Bozhanov, Nelson Goerner, Edgar Moreau and Lilya Zilberstein.

She has recorded for DG and Warner Classics, and made her solo CD debut by the King International Japan.