Joe Hisaishi signs with Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is pleased to announce a new worldwide publishing agreement with the renowned Japanese composer and conductor, Joe Hisaishi.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 14 August 2025
Boosey & Hawkes, a Concord company, is delighted to welcome the music of Joe Hisaishi to its catalogue and embark on a new publishing relationship. Acclaimed for his delicately crafted symphonic and solo works, Joe Hisaishi is an iconic figure greatly in demand as both composer and conductor. The new publishing agreement will see Boosey & Hawkes promoting Joe Hisaishi’s concert works to new performers and conductors internationally, seeking further opportunities for the use of his music and working closely with HarrisonParrott Group in developing new projects.
Works under the agreement include Symphony No.2 and Viola Saga (both released by Deutsche Grammophon), Symphony No.3 ‘Metaphysica’ and the Harp Concerto recently premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Future works to be available from Boosey & Hawkes include a Concerto for Orchestra with first performances in May 2026 by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, with future performances by San Francisco and Colorado symphonies, Orchestra of St Luke’s, Orchestre de Paris and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
"Vivid, evocative and commanding, the duo of Symphony No.2 and Viola Saga build upon decades of expertise, demonstrating a furious sense of vigour."
Bachtrack
A long-standing champion of contemporary music, Joe Hisaishi has strong connections with the music of Boosey & Hawkes composers, especially Steve Reich and John Adams. He conducted the Japanese premiere of Reich’s The Desert Music at Suntory Hall in 2024 and conducts it again at the BBC Proms on 14 August, together with his own soundscape for voices and orchestra The End of the World. Deutsche Grammophon, where Joe Hisaishi is an exclusive artist, has released recordings of both works this month, followed by a Japanese tour. Hisaishi has also programmed music by John Adams including Chamber Symphony, Son of Chamber Symphony and the Japanese premiere of Gnarly Buttons in 2020. His long-running Tokyo series MUSIC FUTURE has featured leading contemporary composers and travelled to Carnegie Hall in New York in 2022 and to Seattle in 2024.
Joe Hisaishi commented:
“I am so excited to embark on this new partnership with Boosey and Hawkes, home to so many of my peers and heroes in the contemporary classical space. This collaboration fully aligns with my love and focus on new music and minimalism as well as encompassing other areas of my music and legacy.”
Janis Susskind, Managing Director of Boosey & Hawkes, commented:
“Seeing Joe Hisaishi conduct Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes alongside his own 2nd Symphony in the Royal Albert Hall last November prompted an insight. Boosey & Hawkes is the natural publishing home for Joe Hisaishi’s music. There is palpable excitement in our international teams about the opportunity to promote this repertoire and to work with Joe Hisaishi and we extend to him our warmest welcome.”
Joe Hisaishi is represented for worldwide general management by HarrisonParrott Group.
> Joe Hisaishi’s Homepage
> Joe Hisaishi at Boosey & Hawkes
> Joe Hisaishi at HarrisonParrott
> Joe Hisaishi at Deutsche Grammophon
> Watch Joe Hisaishi in Vienna video: On Composing Classical Music
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Joe Hisaishi
Born in Japan in 1950, Joe Hisaishi began his career as a contemporary music composer and started to develop his unique style in minimal music when he graduated from conservatory in Japan. The premiere of MKWAJU in 1981 and the release of his first album Information in the following year was the start of his career as a solo artist. Renowned for his long-standing collaboration with Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki and the Studio Ghibli films, Joe Hisaishi has won top level international awards for his scores both on the screen and on the concert platform.
His popular soundtracks for Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Ponyo amongst others, capture his sensitive and imaginative melding of symphonic, contemporary and minimalist genres, also mirrored in his Symphonies 1, 2 and 3, The End of the World and his concerti for violin, viola, contrabass and harp. With nearly 40 solo albums and over 100 film scores, he is one of the most celebrated composers of our time.
As a conductor, Joe Hisaishi’s repertoire ranges from Studio Ghibli scores, through his own symphonic compositions, to classical favourites and music by contemporary composers including John Adams, Nico Muhly, Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich. He has conducted internationally including the Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
A Deutsche Grammophon exclusive artist, Hisaishi has released the titles Merry-Go-Round of Life and A Symphonic Celebration, both of which are new arrangements that bring a fresh excitement to his Studio Ghibli masterpieces. Joe Hisaishi in Vienna features the world premiere recordings of two of his compositions – Symphony No.2 and Viola Saga with Wiener Symphoniker and soloist Antoine Tamestit – and his most recent recording Joe Hisaishi Conducts, released in August 2025, includes the music of Steve Reich alongside his The End of the World, a work that explores the “anxiety and chaos” resulting from the collapse of global order and values in the aftermath of 9/11.
About Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes, a Concord company, is the world’s leading publisher of contemporary classical music. Its blue chip catalogue of 20th-century masters includes Bartók, Bernstein, Britten, Copland, Prokofieff, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Strauss and Stravinsky alongside an eminent front list of composers that includes John Adams, Unsuk Chin, Anna Clyne, Brett Dean, Detlev Glanert, Osvaldo Golijov, HK Gruber, Karl Jenkins, Elena Kats-Chernin, Magnus Lindberg, James MacMillan, Steve Reich, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Eric Whitacre.
> www.boosey.com
About Concord Music Publishing
Concord Music Publishing is a global, full-service, independent music publisher offering bespoke creative support from its A&R, Synchronization and Marketing teams and diligent administration by its in-house Copyright, Licensing, Income Tracking and Royalty departments. Based in Nashville with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Berlin and Melbourne, Concord Music Publishing owns or administers more than one million copyrighted musical works. Spanning nearly two centuries of song, through a vast array of genres and territories, Concord represents the world’s most celebrated songwriters, composers and lyricists.
> www.concord.com
For press enquiries, contact:
David Allenby
VP Publicity & Marketing, Boosey & Hawkes
[email protected]
Adam West
Publicity & Media Associate, Boosey & Hawkes
[email protected]
For programming enquiries, contact:
Emma Kerr
VP Promotion, Boosey & Hawkes
[email protected]
ENDS
> Further information on Work: The End of the World
Photo: Nick Rutter