Programme_Shiori Usui | Inhaling/ Exhaling

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Inhaling/Exhaling explores human psychology and conditions such as gasping for air, panic attacks, stiffness of the body and torment of oneself.

Performance held on the 18th September 2007 at Philharmonie Essen, Germany.

Comissioned by "Deutschlandfunk" and "Philharmonie Essen". Recording production and broadcast by "Deutschlandfunk" and "YOUrope together/Essener Philharmonie". Performers were John Kenny (bass trombone), Carnyx Youth Brass Ensemble: Brendan Musk (trumpet), Peter Longworth (trumpet), Helen Beauchamp (horn), and Patrick Kenny (tenor trombone), Shiori Usui (piano).

Originally from Japan, Shiori was described as a composer with an ‘individual ear’ (the Times) when her piano quintet Liya-pyuwa was world-premiered in the Wigmore Hall, London in 2006. The work was also broadcasted in Hear and Now programme on BBC Radio3 in the following year.

Her music has been widely performed in the U.K., Germany, Austria and Czech Republic by a diverse range of soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including John Kenny the Carnyx Youth Brass Ensemble, and Usui as pianist for the performance of inhaling/exhaling at the Philharmonie Essen, Germany in 2007.
Future projects include work involving motion capturing sensors, the premiere of a work for organ and flute at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009 and in the Netherlands, a CD launching project with her fellow composers at the University of Edinburgh, and a performance of her trio at the Kings Place, London in October 2009.

She is currently studying for a PhD in Composition at the University of Edinburgh with Nigel Osborne and Peter Nelson. Her string orchestra piece, Frozen Blast is published from Europa Edition.