Rei Munakata has conducted ensembles and orchestras such as Oslo Sinfonietta, Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, Ensemble Gageego Göteborg, Scenatet Ensemble Århus, Sundsvall Chamber Orchestra, Hradec Kralove Philharmonics, Adygeya Republic National Symphony Orchestra, Pro Musica Symphony Orchestra, Orkestern Filialen, Sandviken Symphony Orchestra. Rei has participated in Nordic Music Days Festival, Ung Nordiska Musik Festival, Stockholm New Music Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Siren Festival Göteborg, and SPOR Festival Århus. In July 2003, Rei was granted the Bob Harding Bursary to work with Havant Symphony Orchestra during 2003-2004 season.
Rei is currently the principal conductor of the Curious Chamber Players, a Stockholm based group specializing in contemporary music, and has made many world premiere performances in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Germany. At home in recording studios, Rei participated in world-premiere recording of Swedish composer Axel Englund’s Miserere, a chamber ensemble work based on a poem by Christine Falkenland, in 2004. He has worked with Sweden’s most famous pop-singer, Carola Häggqvist, and her production group for her CD ”Show”-recording in 2001.
Rei Munakata was born in Yokohama, Japan, and was raised in both Japan and China as his home countries. In recent years, his home has been USA and Sweden. He started his conducting study with Michael Adelson at Connecticut College, USA, and continued with Per Andersberg, Jorma Panula, and Cecilia Rydinger-Alin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm, Sweden. He received full-fee scholarship award from Trinity College of Music in London to attend Peter Stark’s Postgraduate Diploma Conducting Course in 2002, and was granted the Ricordi Prize in Conducting in June 2003. His other influential teachers have been Mark Wigglesworth, Christian Eggen, and Frantisek Vajnar. Rei has received scholarships and grants from institutions such as Sven och Dagmar Saléns Stiftelse (2006) and Prins Carl Gustavs Stiftelse (2003).