Asagi Ito

Born in Osaka, Asagi Ito is a Japanese saxophonist based in Brussels. She studied saxophone at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music with Masataka Hirano, Kazuo Tomioka and Nobuya Sugawa, before entering the National Conservatory of Paris under the tutelage of Claude Delangle in 2009. Later, she studied chamber music with Lazslo Hadady and Michel Moragues, and also with Paul Mayer and Erick Le Sage at the Regional Conservatory of Paris. She has been granted a Fellowship to study in France under the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program for Artists, which sends young artists of proven talent abroad. She has also received support from the Mayer Foundation.

Since September 2014, she has based her musical activities in Brussels and is studying at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in a teaching course under a scholarship awarded by the Belgian government.

She won the 4th Prize at the 4th Jean-Marie Londeix International Saxophone Competition (2014), 2nd Prize at the Japan Wind and Percussion Competition (2008) and 1st Prize of the 3rd Saxophone Competition in Paris (2012). She was also a finalist at the Adolphe Sax International Saxophone Competition in France (2012).

She has played in many orchestras in Japan, including the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Geidai Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also given concerts in Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Belgium and France.