An international music event created as a natural progression of its successful sister event, the KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival.
KYOTOPHONIE is a vehicle for connection, conversation, and experience through meaningful and vibrant events.
The ideas of unity, diversity, exchange, and exploration are the core principles.
These keywords drive the choices in the programming.
A music event that works in a framework that sees the size of venues as positive, embracing the challenges of the spaces to create impressive and connected moments.
KYOTOPHONIE can harmonise the event within the city — uniting its history, future, and aspirations. Visitors explore new modes of presentation.
KYOTOPHONIE harnesses the power of community and creates new connections.
KYOTOPHONIE will be a platform for transcultural projects.
KYOTOPHONIE will grow to become an important musical platform in Asia.
Japan and Kyoto lack a diverse event that brings creativity from the fields of music, performances, visual art, and design.
Kyoto and Kyoto Prefecture are home to spectacular venues and many incredible natural sites, presenting a perfect opportunity to host a new type of cultural event in Japan.
Like KYOTOGRAPHIE, KYOTOPHONIE will support and involve the local community and create new opportunities for local artists to collaborate with international professionals and vice versa.
KYOTOPHONIE believes that this event can create opportunities that are currently not present in Japan.
Lucille Reyboz
Photographer. Born in 1973 in Lyon, France, Lucille Reyboz began her journey with photography in Africa, where she spent most of her childhood. She first came to Japan in 1999, invited by Ryuichi Sakamoto to collaborate on his opera “Life.” As a portrait photographer, Lucille Reyboz produced numerous record covers for labels such as Blue Note and Verve working with many renowned artists over her 20 years in the industry. She exhibited her work in Africa, Japan and around the world; most notably in Visa pour l’image (2001), Phillips de Pury in New York (2007), and CHANEL NEXUS HALL, Tokyo (2011). She published several books, including Batammaba by Gallimard, Belles de Bamako and Impressions du Japon with Keiichiro Hirano by Editions de la Martinière. Together with Yusuke Nakanishi, Lucille Reyboz co-founded and is the co-director of KYOTOGRAPHIE in 2013, and KYOTOPHONIE Borderless Music Festival in 2023.
Yusuke Nakanishi
Lighting Director. Yusuke Nakanishi was born in 1968 in Fukuoka, and currently lives in Kyoto. He travels the world, expressing his impressions of light and shadow from his memories. He has worked as a lighting director for music videos, feature films, stages, music concerts, fashion shows and interior designs. He also created lighting object series eatable lights and Tamashii and has exhibited installations at the Hara Museum, School Gallery (Paris), including Nuit Blanche in Kyoto. He co-founded KYOTOGRAPHIE with Lucille Reyboz in 2013 and is the co-director. In Autumn 2022, he was involved in the creative direction for Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition LIGHT OF FLOWERS, which was held on the grounds of Shimogamo Shrine and the Tadasunomori Forest. In 2023, he co-founded KYOTOPHONIE Borderless Music Festival with Lucille Reyboz.
