Kouichi Honda

After attending the Music High School attached to Osaka College of Music, Honda studied abroad at the Conservatory De Rouen in France. In 1976, he graduated from the clarinet and chamber music department of the same conservatory with a unanimous First Prize diploma from the jury. Since returning to Japan, Honda has given numerous recitals and chamber music concerts to great acclaim. Among them, he has performed many works by modern and contemporary composers, including works by Stravinsky, Berg, Kelterborn, and Fukuo Yamaguchi, and has premiered many works by Japanese and foreign composers in the Kansai region, for which he has received high acclaim. Since 1986, he has served as a judge for the the Japan Clarinet Competition, the Takarazuka Vega Music Competition, and the clarinet divisions of the Japan Music Competition, Japan Wind and Percussion Competition, and the Japan Woodwind Competition. Honda studied clarinet under Mitsugi Kida, Koichi Hamanaka, and Jacques Lancelot, and modern playing techniques under Walter Boeykens.