阿部櫻子ジェーン・Sakurako Jayne Abe
she | her
Co-Founder, Performer
Photo: Sam Gaetz
Born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan, Sakurako Jayne Abe is currently in her fourth year of study at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, pursuing her degree in piano performance in the studio of Dr. Lisa Tahara. She has been playing the piano since the age of four under the tutelage of Michi Ueno and Mikiko Ko. She was a finalist at the Japan Student Music Competition, received numerous prizes at local competitions, and participated in the annual music camp in Hakodate for seven years. Through multiple master classes with professors who represent the Japanese music industry, including Haruko Ueda, Katsumi Ueda, and Atsuko Okada, she solidified her career as a musician and pianist. Also, she has found her passion in creating music with others by performing in a piano trio with Kenta Matsumi (violin) and Rintaro Kaneko (cello).
Both her enthusiasm in collaborative piano and her own cultural heritage led to a private creative project with Chihiro Yasufuku, named Hibiki Project. The Hibiki Project releases performance videos, interviews, and collaboration products with other artists through an online platform, in order to celebrate Japanese art and music culture. She currently works as a pianist for the Harmony School of Music and Dance, a rehearsal pianist for the Toronto Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and has performed multiple times to perform at a formal corporal event and weddings in Toronto, expanding her career path as a collaborative pianist. During her undergraduate years, on top of her numerous recordings and performances related to the Hibiki project, she also participated in and received prizes from the Pacific International Piano Competition, the Ontario Music Festival, Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival, the North York Music Festival, and the Pickering Rotary Music Festival.
安福知優・Chihiro Yasufuku
she | her
Co-Founder, Performer, Administrator
Photo: Sam Gaetz
Chihiro Yasufuku・安福知優 (she/her) is a promising fresh performer-collaborator and actor based in Tkarón:to (Toronto, Canada). An emerging artist driven by a love for culture, psychology and curation, she seeks creative inspiration from the raw human emotions that fuel, at times absorb, and interlace our lives. With a background of nearly 20 years of study as a violinist which eventually expanded its roots to singing, her musical training has spanned from early Baroque to 21st century compositions, including performance of those written by living composers. Chihiro holds a Bachelor of Music with Honors in Classical Voice Performance from the University of Toronto, where she further pursues a MMus Degree in their prestigious Opera School.
During this past summer season, Chihiro appeared as Noa in a workshop of Nehal El-Hadi’s The Observer Effect (The Theatre Centre). In earlier years, she has offered moving performances in roles including Ottavia (L'incoronazione di Poppea, Opera NUOVA), expressing “indignation at Nero discarding her for his new lover Poppea with a strong musical outburst” (Opera Canada). Coming up this 2024-25 season with U of T Opera, Chihiro will live in the shoes of Nausicaa (Castaway), Miranda (The Tempest Songbook), Cathleen (Riders to the Sea) and Sister Clotilde (The Avenue of Avarice). She is also scheduled to appear in the Canadian Opera Company’s Free Concert Series for a recital featuring Japanese song in January 2025.
When not on the stage or pursuing her studies as a violinist, Chihiro nurtures her passion for arts administration and management, associate producing Amplified Opera’s recent concert series, AMPLIFY 1.0 (2022), and curating a series of musical interludes for the two-day symposium featuring Teiya Kasahara’s 笠原貞野 (they/them) film, The Butterfly Project: The Ballad of Chō-Chō San (2021).
ストラットフォード賢人・Kento Stratford
he | him
Composer, Performer
Born in Izumisano City, Japan, composer, pianist, organist, and educator, Kento Stratford (b. 1997) leads a diverse artistic practice throughout Canada and beyond. Drawing from his own Japanese Canadian heritage, Kento’s music inhabits a sonic world balanced between two contrasting traditions: one forward-moving, consumptive, and grandiose, the other understated, reductive, and temporally unbound. His works are inspired by a wide range of personal interests spanning everything from science fiction to ancient medicine. Kento’s works have been performed and commissioned by a diverse group of artists and ensembles, including most recently: the Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto, the Choir of St. James Cathedral, Odin String Quartet, HAVEN Trio, Sirius Piano Duo, Concreamus Chamber Choir, and theremenist Thorwald Jorgensen. His music has been heard at festivals in North America and Europe including at CAMPGROUND22, Connecticut Summerfest, and the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival.
Kento is also active as a performer, appearing regularly in recitals and concerts as a solo and collaborative pianist. In addition to work as a concert performer, Kento thoroughly enjoys working with sacred music and has held numerous appointments as a church musician. He currently serves as music director at Graceview Presbyterian Church in Etobicoke, ON, where he can be heard playing the organ and conducting the choir every Sunday.
Kento holds a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance and composition from the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen’s University, as well as a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Toronto.