Biography
For many years Kei Koito has pursued a multifaceted path as an organist, integrating performance, academic inquiry, and instruction. She holds a professorship in organ at the Lausanne University of Music.
Born in Kyoto, Japan, on January 4, 1950, she began private instruction at age six on piano, harpsichord, cello, and voice. Her piano skills developed rapidly enough for her to appear as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, with the Yokohama City Orchestra while still in her teens; she also played cello in the orchestra of Yokohama’s Hiranuma College, then a high school. At twelve she commenced organ study, and by sixteen she had resolved to pursue the instrument professionally. She enrolled at the University of Fine Arts & Music in Tokyo (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku), where she explored musical aesthetics and general philosophy while receiving organ instruction, initially in Tokyo from Mitchio Akimoto and subsequently from Pierre Segond in Geneva, Xavier Darasse in Toulouse, France, and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini in Freiburg, Germany. At the Geneva Conservatory she completed a master’s degree and received several graduation awards, among them the First Prize of Organ Virtuosity with distinction, prizes in Improvisation and Basso Continuo, and the Otto Barblan Prize for the finest interpretation of J.S. Bach.
Her professional activities have spanned an equally wide range. She has appeared as organ soloist throughout Europe, the United States, and Japan, and she has joined Musica Antiqua Köln, directed by Reinhard Goebel—under whom she had previously studied—in performances of Handel’s organ concertos. During the earlier phase of her career she also presented contemporary works for organ by Karlheinz Stockhausen and additional composers. Her research has centered on the connections between Bach’s organ music and that of his contemporaries. In 1992 she joined the music faculty at Lausanne University in France, where she has deliberately assembled an international cohort of students. Her recordings, issued primarily on Claves and Harmonia Mundi and devoted chiefly to Bach, have frequently appeared on year-end best-of lists and earned additional distinctions. In 2019 she released the album Back to Bach, recorded on the organ of the Martinikerk Groningen in the Netherlands.
Born in Kyoto, Japan, on January 4, 1950, she began private instruction at age six on piano, harpsichord, cello, and voice. Her piano skills developed rapidly enough for her to appear as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, with the Yokohama City Orchestra while still in her teens; she also played cello in the orchestra of Yokohama’s Hiranuma College, then a high school. At twelve she commenced organ study, and by sixteen she had resolved to pursue the instrument professionally. She enrolled at the University of Fine Arts & Music in Tokyo (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku), where she explored musical aesthetics and general philosophy while receiving organ instruction, initially in Tokyo from Mitchio Akimoto and subsequently from Pierre Segond in Geneva, Xavier Darasse in Toulouse, France, and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini in Freiburg, Germany. At the Geneva Conservatory she completed a master’s degree and received several graduation awards, among them the First Prize of Organ Virtuosity with distinction, prizes in Improvisation and Basso Continuo, and the Otto Barblan Prize for the finest interpretation of J.S. Bach.
Her professional activities have spanned an equally wide range. She has appeared as organ soloist throughout Europe, the United States, and Japan, and she has joined Musica Antiqua Köln, directed by Reinhard Goebel—under whom she had previously studied—in performances of Handel’s organ concertos. During the earlier phase of her career she also presented contemporary works for organ by Karlheinz Stockhausen and additional composers. Her research has centered on the connections between Bach’s organ music and that of his contemporaries. In 1992 she joined the music faculty at Lausanne University in France, where she has deliberately assembled an international cohort of students. Her recordings, issued primarily on Claves and Harmonia Mundi and devoted chiefly to Bach, have frequently appeared on year-end best-of lists and earned additional distinctions. In 2019 she released the album Back to Bach, recorded on the organ of the Martinikerk Groningen in the Netherlands.
Albums
Bach: Famous Organ Works
2019
Splendour - Organ Music & Vocal Works by Buxtehude, Hassler, Praetorius & Scheidemann
2017
Baroque Organ Concertos
2016
Organ Music Before Bach - Works by Pachelbel, Froberger, Muffat, a.o.
2014
J. S. Bach: Organ Masterworks, Vol. III
2012
Bach: Organ Masterworks, Vol. V
2010
J.S. Bach: Organ Masterworks, Vol. II.
2010
J.S. Bach: Organ Masterworks, Vol. I
2009
Buxtehude, Radeck, Strunck, Scheidemann, H & J. Praetorius, Weckmann, Tunder & J. S. Bach: Works for Organ
2007
Singles
