Emmy Award Winner for Outstanding Series for Disney's "SHOGUN" soundtrack.

A chance and deeply encouraging encounter with Ryuichi Sakamoto led Taro Ishida to immerse himself the profound world of gagaku. This London concert takes place on the anniversary of Sakamoto's passing.

About 1,400 years ago, musical cultures traveled along the Silk Road, through Korea and China, and into Japan.
Japan already had indigenous songs, and these traditions mixed together.
By the mid-Heian period (around the 8th century), gagaku had already reached its completed form.
What's astonishing is that it has remained almost unchanged for about 1,300 years.
For comparison, Bach lived in the 17th–18th centuries, so gagaku was already fully formed nearly 1,000 years before Bach.

In the Heian period, beauty meant resembling nature. Layered robes represented forests, earth, moonlight—like, wearing nature itself.
Gagaku isn't music directed from one person to another.
It's music directed toward nature, or existing between nature and humans.

Gagaku is ancient music, but perhaps its ideas are more relevant now than ever.
It reminds us that meaning does not always come from explanation, that beauty does not require mastery and that some things only reveal themselves when we stop trying to control them.

A versatile talent in music, production, art direction, and entrepreneurship, Taro Ishida has significantly contributed to notable projects such as Disney's "SHOGUN" working alongside Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Nick Chuba. Together they crafted the Grammy and Emmy-nominated soundtrack which received recognition in both the Outstanding Music Composition and Outstanding Main Title Theme.

Music categories. Ishida san primarily focused on arranging the traditional Japanese music, especially Gagaku. In 2024, he began creating and releasing a unique fusion of classical music and Gagaku —an unprecedented style in the global music scene with the release of his work "Ranjo/Netori". Additionally, he worked on "Matsuriya" at Hoshino Resorts Aomoriya, further showcasing his expertise in traditional.

Japanese music. Educated at Tokyo University of the Arts, he blends academic rigor with innovative approaches to both modern and traditional art forms.

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Tickets: See ticket pages