Miyabi Duo

The Miyabi Duo is a versatile ensemble comprising Saki Kato (Japan) and Hugh Millington (UK). Together they perform a variety of music for two guitars, ranging from new compositions written for the duo, to music on nineteenth-century period guitars, to iconic music from the Spanish guitar repertoire.

With a special passion for performing new music, the duo regularly collaborates with composers to give the first performances and recordings of music for two guitars. These have included pieces by Edward Cowie, Electra Perivolaris, Sylvia Lim, Timothy Bowers, Stephen Balfour, and Mihailo Trandafilovski, whose pieces they premiered in various Wigmore Hall concerts in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

They have recorded on albums including Timothy Bowers: Music for Guitar Vol.1 (Toccata, 2026); Streams and Particles (Métier, 2022), the guitar music of Edward Cowie; Polychromy (Métier, 2022), Mihailo Trandafilovski’s guitar duo; and Flare (Another Timbre, 2026), featuring a guitar duo by Sylvia Lim.

The Miyabi Duo works extensively in community music-making contexts, and in 2020, the duo was awarded the Wigmore Hall Learning/Open Academy Ensemble Fellowship. This led them to work with people of all ages across Wigmore Hall Learning’s vast programme, including musical workshops for people living with dementia. Based in Suffolk, they frequently collaborate with organisations including Live Music Now and Britten Pears Arts. With the latter they have performed concerts in Suffolk’s prisons in addition to regularly leading musical workshops for their ‘Participate’ programme, which aims to use music to combat social isolation in rural communities. They were awarded the Waldmann Music Award in 2020 (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge) to recognise their work in this field.

Programme to include, amongst others, works by Joaquin Rodrigo, Claude Debussy, Pierre Petit, Timothy Bowers, Errollyn Wallen.

Photo by courtesy of Benjamin Ealovega