Yoshiaki Onishi is a Japanese-American composer, conductor, and clarinetist. As
a composer, he is interested in exploring a wide range of instrumental timbres and finding ways to incorporate them in musical syntaxes and forms that disrupt the sense of expectation. He has worked on commissions that have come from such festivals and organizations as Klangwerkstatt
Berlin, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Takefu International Music Festival, and Gaudeamus Muziekweek, and his music has been performed by ensembles worldwide, including New Japan Philharmonic, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, Nieuw Ensemble, Distractfold Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Quatuor Diotima and JACK Quartet. He is the recipient of the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2018 Fromm Commission, and the Gaudeamus Prize 2011. Edition Gravis in Berlin, Germany, publishes his music. As a conductor deeply engaged in promoting the music of today, he was Director for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble and one of the founding members of Ensemble Exophonie Tokyo. Other ensembles he has worked with as a conductor include Ensemble Kujoyama, Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam, ECCE Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Columbia University Orchestra and the University Philharmonic Orchestra of the University of Missouri. Increasingly active as a clarinetist and improviser, he has collaborated with composers and musicians such as George Lewis, Alvin Lucier, Miles Brown, Oswald Huỳnh, and Eli Wallace. Together with Santiago Beis, he plays in the Onishi-Beis Duo, an electroacoustic improvisation duo. Onishi received his doctorate in music composition from Columbia University in 2015. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music Composition at the University of Delaware School of Music.

„While I was in residency at Künstler*dorf Schöppingen, I worked on three projects and made significant progress in each of them: 1. an extensive revision on PmuD III for alto flute, bass clarinet, violoncello, and piano (2024–25); 2. spec for three bass clarinets, and; 3. conc for 11 players. I also worked on a short project: an arrangement of a vocal piece Du bist die Ruh by Franz Schubert for string quartet. Künstler*dorf also provided me with a fertile ground to create art with other fellows. For example, visual arts fellow Imane Zoubai and I worked on a joint presentation for the monthly Open Studio in July. This resulted in Tea Ceremony with Grains (Homage to Imane Zoubai), a two-channel electronic piece that was performed then. Recording an improvisation on bass clarinet with visual artist Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano playing the waterphone in St. Brictius Church was also a thrilling project. Spectral analysis of recordings of water by Sohorab Rabbey, as well as Evgenija Wassilew facilitating visits to the ham radio station in Schöppinger Berg—ultimately helping me connect to my childhood fascination—and so many artistic exchanges with other fellows have left me eager for future collaborations with them. Last but not least, a series of coincidences resulted in the appearance on the TV program Lokalzeit Münsterland on WDR (alongside Julia Haarmann and Sohorab Rabbey), making Chocolate Roulade with Crème Anglaise and Berry Compote, a recipe I have been making for the past twenty years.”