English biography
Saya Hashino - ILUMA
Saya Hashino, also known as ILUMA, is a Japanese-born, Geneva-based pianist, organist, harpsichordist, composer and sound artist. She has built an international career spanning the classical repertoire, contemporary creation and immersive sound experiences.
After graduating in piano from Tokyo University of the Arts, she earned two Master of Arts HES-SO degrees in Specialised Music Performance, major in Solo Performance, at the Haute école de musique de Genève: one in piano and one in organ. She ranked first in both disciplines, with Distinction, the highest evaluation, in organ and Mention très bien in piano. In 2005, she received the Prix Georges Filipinetti, awarded to the top graduate of the piano soloist programme. She also received the Prix d’orgue Pierre Segond twice, in 2007 and 2009, a prize recognizing a particularly deserving student in the organ classes.
She collaborates regularly with ensembles including the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Orchestre de Chambre de Genève. With the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, she has taken part in numerous international tours and major orchestral projects. She performed the piano part in Stravinsky’s Petrushka at the BBC Proms in 2018, during the orchestra’s 2023 European tour, and on its 2025 Asian tour to China, Japan and South Korea. She also joined the orchestra on a US tour, during which she performed the piano part in Stravinsky’s The Song of the Nightingale, including a concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She is titular organist at Saint-Germain Church in Geneva.
Her discography includes Vor deinen Thron, an album of organ works by J. S. Bach released by Solo Musica, and the solo piano album Danse de l’âme, released by Octavia Records / Triton and selected by the Japanese magazine Stereo as one of its Outstanding Recordings of the Month in July 2024. She also appears as organist in Fauré’s Requiem with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo under Kazuki Yamada, and as organ soloist in Christopher Young’s Nosferatu with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, released by Warner Classics in 2024.
Under the name ILUMA, she creates immersive sound works combining improvisation, intuitive voice, singing bowls and synthesizers. Her work explores the connections between resonance, consciousness and inner transformation, extending the practice of deep listening that also informs her classical interpretations.
She is represented in Japan by Pro Arte Musicae .