Joe Hisaishi in Chicago

Joe Hisaishi is a Japanese composer, conductor and pianist born in 1950, best known for his scores to Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films. His work includes the music for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. He has also maintained a long collaboration with filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, scoring films including Sonatine and Hana-bi. In 2008, Joe Hisaishi presented Joe Hisaishi in Budokan: 25 Years with the Animations of Hayao Miyazaki at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, conducting an orchestral and choral program drawn from their films. He later took Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Concert: Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki to international stages, conducting and performing at the piano during a 2022 run at Radio City Music Hall in New York.