10 Days to "Experience" Toru Takemitsu: Mito International Music Festival 2026 Expands to Central Ibaraki

The Mito International Music Festival 2026, based in Mito City, has been decided to be held for 10 days from October 16th to 25th. The Mito International Music Festival Executive Committee, the organizer, held its second general meeting at the Mito International Exchange Center on April 28, 2026. From this year, the festival will expand its area to the central Ibaraki region, developing into a wide-area international music festival that connects music, scenery, and movement.

- 2025 Kairakuen Open-air Performance "Star Paths and Soundscapes of the Garden" (Planning and Direction: Kaito Nakahori / Kairakuen)

### From Mito to the Entire Central Ibaraki Region
While this music festival was held within Mito City during its preliminary staging last year, for its full-scale implementation in 2026, the area will be expanded to include Kasama City, Oarai Town, Hitachinaka City, and Naka City. It will evolve into a wide-area music festival set across the entire central Ibaraki region.

The venues will include the Mito Civic Hall, as well as Kairakuen, Kodokan, Kasama Inari Shrine (Kasama City), Oarai Isosaki Shrine (Oarai Town), Sakatsura Isosaki Shrine (Hitachinaka City), and Kiuchi Brewery (Naka City), utilizing regional historical and cultural resources to present programs that traverse both indoor and outdoor spaces. By encountering music while traversing diverse environments, visitors will create a new artistic experience where movement itself becomes an experience.

### Participation of Domestic and International Artists
As the first announcement of scheduled artists, the following three individuals have been revealed:

- Aki Takahashi
A leading Japanese pianist who has made significant contributions to the development of contemporary music since her debut with Toru Takemitsu's works while still in graduate school. She is a recipient of the Medal with Purple Ribbon.

- Miranda Cuckson
A New York-based violinist who has received high international acclaim, including being selected for The New York Times' annual best recordings.

- Branden Patrick George
A flutist who has won a Grammy Award (Best Classical Compendium). He also teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music.

### "Experiencing" Toru Takemitsu's Music
2026 marks the 30th anniversary of composer Toru Takemitsu's death, and one of this year's themes will focus on his music. Takemitsu is globally recognized as one of Japan's leading composers, active in a wide range of fields from orchestral works to film scores. Traversing Western music and Japanese sensibilities, he uniquely explored sound and silence, profoundly influencing 20th-century music.

By presenting Takemitsu's works in diverse environments such as gardens, historic buildings, and seashores, different sounds and flows of time will be created in each location.

### Comment from General Director Kaito Nakahori
The Mito International Music Festival is an attempt to expand the act of "listening" into "experiential music." It invites audiences from music confined within a hall to an experience that encompasses the town, scenery, movement, and time itself. Music connects with space and overlaps with memories, being reconfigured within each individual. What is important in this music festival is not just the works themselves, but also the process of encountering them. How do you move, where do you stop, and what do you encounter? Within this connection, music emerges in different forms for each person. Please try to feel the sound of waves, the chirping of insects, the comfortable breeze, and the scent of plants between the sounds of the performance.

This year, with Toru Takemitsu's music as a central theme, marking 30 years since his death, we are conceiving a program that transcends layers of time and culture through interactions with international performers, as well as gagaku and hogaku artists. We aim to create a space where past and present, local and global, contend, and new harmonies are born. Music changes places, and places change music. From the land of Mito, we will launch artistic moments that can only be born through this exchange.

And this year marks the full-scale launch of this music festival. We aim to carefully build up unique expressions and encounters that can only be born at the "Mito International Music Festival." From Mito, to the world, a new form of art. We sincerely look forward to meeting you here this autumn.

Kaito Nakahori, General Director, Mito International Music Festival

### Scenes from the 2nd General Meeting of the Mito International Music Festival Executive Committee
Greeting by Yasushi Takahashi (Mayor of Mito City, Honorary Executive Chairman) (April 28, 2026 / 2nd General Meeting of the Mito International Music Festival Executive Committee)

Members of the Mito International Music Festival Executive Committee (April 28, 2026 / After the 2nd General Meeting)

### Event Outline
Period: October 16 (Fri) - October 25 (Sun), 2026
Venues: Mito City and various locations in the central Ibaraki region
Organizers: Mito International Music Festival Executive Committee (Honorary Executive Chairman: Yasushi Takahashi, Mayor of Mito City), General Incorporated Association Mito Music Kobo (Representative Directors: Keiko Tomita, Kaito Nakahori)
Official Website: https://mito-musicfestival.jp

Mito International Music Festival 2026 Official Logo