Biography

Biography

Malika Kishino

Born in 1971 in Kyoto, has lived in Cologne since 2005. After studying law in her homeland, she studied composition and electronic music in France at the École Normale de Paris, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon, and IRCAM in Paris with Yoshihisa Taira, Robert Pascal and Philippe Leroux. Malika Kishino, winner of the Rompreis 2024/25, creates 'sound organisms' as a composer, viewing her works as living beings with their own development. Her repertoire, which includes solo pieces, orchestral works, and more, consists of over 100 publications with SZ-Sugar (Edizioni Suvini Zerboni).

She has received grants from the major studios for electroacoustic music including GRAME (Lyon), SWR Experimentalstudio, ZKM Karlsruhe, the Groupe de recherches musicales (INA-GRM, Paris) and Centre Hennri Pousseur (Liége) . She has received numerous prizes and awards including the 69th Otaka Award of NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, Rome Prize of Deutschen Akademie Rom Villa Massimo , Nomine for the Music Composition Prize of FONDATION PRINCE PIERRE DE MONACO, First Prize in the 6th concours of Groupe de Recherche Appliquée en Musique Electroacoustique (GRAME) and Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain in 2006, a fellowship from Academy Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Landesregierung Nordrhein-Westfalen, and an artist’s residency in Schreyahn /Germany.

Commissions and Festivals: 

Présences Festival of Radio France, le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, the Musica Festival in Strasbourg, Wittener Tage für neue Kammer Musik,Donaueschinger Musiktage, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Beethovenfest,Südwest Rundfunk, Bayerische Rundfunk, Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg, the Ultima Festival in Oslo, the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin, Venezia Biennale Musica, the Warsaw Autumn, Achtbrücken Festival in Cologne, Essen Now Festival, Davos Festival, Suntory Summer Festival in Tokyo and many more.

Ensembles and Orchestras:

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, WDRSymphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, The Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, NHK-Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Dresden Chamber choir, Chorwerk Ruhr, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Asko-Schönberg, Oslo Symphoniette, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Court-Circuit, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Nomad Tokyo and many more.

Conductors : 

Pascal Rophé, Fabrice Pierre, Jean-Michaël Lavoie, Bas Wiegers, Lawrence Renes, Yoichi Sugiyama, Peter Rundel, Cristian Măcelaru, Ivan Volkov, Jonathan Stockhammer, Elena Schwarz and many more.

Soloists:

Isao Nakamura, Dirk Rothbrust, Alexej Gerassimez, Minh-TâmNguyen, Siniti Uéno, Sun-Min Shim, Emanuela Bugatti, Roberto Fabricciani, Maruta Staravoitava, Jeremias Schwarzer, Peter Veale, Shizuyo Oka, Nicolas Altsatdt, Oren Shevlin, Vincent Royer, Megumi Kasakawa, Matthew Lipman, Maria Pache, Midori Seiler, Anna-Victoria Baltrusch, Makiko Goto, Shoko Otani many more...

Selected Works :

  • "Koto Concerto" (2013) for koto and chamber orchestra (commissioned by Radio France)
  • "Shades of Ochre"(2017) for orchestra (commissioned by the NHK Symphony Orchestra)
  • "Percussion Concerto"(2020-21) for percussion and orchestra (commissioned by the Philharmonie Essen)
  • "What the Thunder Said"(2021) for cello and orchestra (commissioned by WDR Westdeutscher Rundfunk,69th Otaka Award-Winning work)
  • "Wolkenatlas" (2022) for orchestra divided into three groups (commissioned by SWR Südwestdeutsches Rundfunkorchester,nominated for the Music Composition Prize of FONDATION PRINCE PIERRE DE MONACO)
  • "Shades of Echoes"(2022) for Oboe and Ensemble (commissioned by the Kölner Philharmonie Achtbrücken Festival).
  •  "Sange" (2016) for six percussionists (commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture).
  • "Ra"(2019) for live electronics and viola (commissioned by the Henri Pousseur Electronic Music Studio)
  • "Monochrome Garden"(I- VIII) series 
  • "Nox"series 

Her portrait CD Irisationwas published by the Wergo label and Deutscher Musikrat as part of the Edition Zeitgenössische Musik. Her works are published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni in Milan.

(July 2025)