Koji Nakano Koji Nakano

In 2008, Koji Nakano received the S&R Foundation's Washington Award for most promising young artist in Washington, D.C., the first composer to receive the honor, and is widely regarded as one of the most representative Asian composers of the generation. Nakano has presented portrait concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York, Northern Illinois University, Georgia State University and elsewhere. Nakano earned bachelor's and master's degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory in Boston; in 2002–2003 studied with composer Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands as an overseas trainee artist of the Japanese government; and then completed a doctorate in composition at the University of California, San Diego, studying with Chinary Ung. Nakano was a visiting lecturer in music composition at the University of California, Santa Cruz in winter 2013, and has been a visiting professor at Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts and National Chiao Tung University.

Nakano currently serves as head of international affairs at the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts of Burapha University in Thailand, where Nakano also teaches composition, and is director of the annual international program in music and performing arts and artistic director of an experimental Thai music lab for young composers. As co-director of the Asian Young Musicians Connection (AYMC), Nakano works to promote commissioned works by Asian composers and exchange with professional musicians around the world, advancing new music through regular concerts and awards. Koji Nakano is a member of ASCAP in the United States.