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The Japanese soprano, Ai Sakabayashi, obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Singing from Kyoto City University of Arts; and her Master of Music degree from the Royal College of Music in UK. She was awarded the first prize at the Young Artist competition in Shiga in the same year. She has recently finished her studies in Early Music vocal performance at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and at Fontys Tilburg Conservatory, with the support of Holland Scholarship, and her singing teachers include Sinal Vural, Amanda Roocroft, Emiko Suga. She also received coaching by Peter Kooij, Robin Blaze, Pascal Bertin, Dorothee Mields, and lute song instructions from Jakob Lindberg.
Ai Sakabayashi is specializing in early music singing. She is active in performing Baroque operas/oratorios, the notable ones being Serpina in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, Josabeth in George Frideric Handel's Athalia, Poppea in Monteverdi's L’lincoronazione di Poppea, Belinda in Pucell's Dido and Aeneas, Bastienne in W.A. Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne and Angel in Heinrich Schütz's Weihnachtchistorie.
Ai Sakabayashi is also no stranger to other music genres. Her repertoire includes a wide range of performance styles, from Renaissance polyphony and lute songs to contemporary compositions including chamber music. She was featured as both Annas in Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins in a series of concerts in Kyoto, Japan 2018-2020, and was very well-received by the audience. Shur currently lives in The Hague, and is freelancing in choirs and also as a chamber musician in the Netherlands. |
