All-male chamber ensemble Ditto has been invited to perform at La Folle Journee au Japon “Days of Enthusiasm” Music Festival currently being held in Tokyo, its agency said.

The ensemble members, including violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill, pianist Jiyong, cellist Michael Nicolas, and violinists Johnny Lee and Erik Schumann, will perform classical music composed by Russian musicians in the Marunouchi area of Tokyo during Japan’s annual spring holiday Golden Week. This is the ensemble’s third performance in Japan, Credia, its agency, said.

On May 3, at the 1,100-seat Hall Yomiuri, Ditto will perform Stravinsky’s “Italian Suite” for violin and piano Op. 36, Tchaikovsky’s Quartet No. 1 in D Major Op. 11, and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor Op. 110.

The ensemble will play Borodine’s String Quartet No. 2 in D Major and Shostakovich’s Quintet for piano and strings in G Minor Op. 57 at Tokyo International Forum on May 4. On May 5, Ditto will perform the Shostakovich repertoire on an open stage at the forum.

La Folle Journee is an annual music festival that began in 1995 in the French port city of Nantes and has been held in Tokyo since 2005. More than 300 performances are to be held this week with more than 1,500 artists and 300,000 attendees participating in the event. The slogan of the 2012 La Folle Journee is “Le Scare Russe,” meaning “the soul of Russia.”

Ditto, led by violist O’Neill, holds its annual festival “Nuovo Ditto” in June, in Seoul. This year’s Ditto Festival will attempt to break barriers between classical and contemporary music, the ensemble previously said.

Violist O’Neill, who is the festival’s artistic director, will make his debut this year as a conductor, expanding and testing his musical range.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)