The organizers of Otakon announced on Wednesday that prolific Japanese composer Yoko Kanno will perform a concert at this year's convention in Baltimore, Maryland. Kanno will premiere her latest project "Piano Me," a solo piano concert with experimental live visuals. This year, Otakon will take place from August 9 to August 11. Kanno will perform at Otakon on Sunday, August 11.

Yoko Kanno has scored the soundtracks to many popular anime works, including Cowboy Bebop, Darker than Black, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Macross Plus and Frontier, The Vision of Escaflowne, Wolf's Rain, and most recently, Kids on the Slope. She has also composed live-action films such as Hiroshi Ishikawa's Petal Dance which just opened in Japan last month. She has worked with SMAP, May'n, YUKI, Miki Imai, Maaya Sakamoto, Kyoko Koizumi, Crystal Kay, T.M Revolution, Shione Yukawa, Chitose Hajime, YOSHIKA, ORIGA, and other musical artists.



Since last year, she has been collaborating with director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Kids on the Slope), composer Taro Umebayashi, and producer Keisuke Tominaga (Kids on the Slope) on the Piano label. She also held an open audition for a singer on one of the label's tracks, "Merry Song." She will release Song of departure, which is A Cappella Arrangements for Male Voices this summer.

Otakon posted an announcement video from Kanno:

Kanno previously appeared at Otakon in 1999, at Anime Expo, and at the New York Anime Festival (now New York Comic Con).