Takefu International Music Festival 2015 Official Website

Ryoko Aoki

Tomoko Akasaka

Tomoko Akasaka won numerous prizes, among them the 1st prize at the 12th Japan classical music competition and the 3rd prize at the 53th Munich International music competition.
Tomoko Akasaka has performed as a soloist and chamber musician worldwide. As a soloist she has appeared with the Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Muenchener Kammerorchester, the Orchestre de chamber de Genève, the Filarmonica banatul timisoara, the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica, the Ensemble Contrechamps,and the Japan Symphony orchestra under the baton of conductors like Seiji Ozawa, Johannes Kalitzke, Raman Kofman, Kazuki Yamada, Gheorghe Costin, Olivier Cuendet and Günther Herbig.
She has recently given a widely acclaimed series of recitals in Japan, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Germany amongst others. The series of Recitals in Geneva and Tokyo has been broadcasted by Swiss Romande, and NHK-TV.
Her chamber music partners included Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Hope, Gidon Kremer, Heinz Holliger, Menahem Pressler, Charles Neidich, at international music festivals such as Salzburg Festival Lockenhaus Festival, Bad-Kissingen sommer, BBC Proms, Saito-Kinen Festival, Pablo Casals Festival, Luzern and Verbier Festival, Zagreb Chamber music festival, Kronberg Cello Festival, Rio de Janeiro Festival, San Francisco Musical days, Schubertiade and others.
Tomoko Akasaka has performed at concert venues including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Konzerthaus and Philharmonie Berlin, Royal Albert hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Schloss Nymphenburg Munich, Shanghai Grand Theater,and National Centre for the performing arts in Beijing,
Geneva Victoria Hall and Grand Théâtre,
Her recent collaboration with the composer György Kurtág has had a profound influence on her work as a musician.
Official Site

Anssi Karttunen

The Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen is one of the most reputable and versatile musicians on today's classical music scene. Exceedingly active both as a soloist and chamber musician, his repertoire covers all of the standard works for cello, as well as a myriad of forgotten masterpieces and his own arrangements. He plays on modern, classical, and baroque cellos, as well as the violoncello piccolo.
Anssi Karttunen is a passionate advocate of contemporary music. He has performed over 125 world premieres, collaborating with such composers as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi, and Tan Dun. An astounding 24 concertos have been written for him. He premiered Magnus Lindberg's cello concerto with the Orchestre de Paris (1999),Esa-Pekka Salonen's Mania with Avanti! (2000), Martin Matalon's cello concerto with the Orchestre National de France (2001),and Luca Francesconi's Rest with the RAI Torino (2004). Kaija Saariaho wrote the concerto Notes on Light for Karttunen, which he premiered with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who commissioned the work, in February 2007. Performances of Notes on Light with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and the New World Symphony followed. In October 2013, Anssi Karttunen premiered Magnus Lindberg's Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen perform with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France amongst others in the next seasons. In November 2014, he will premiere a new Cello Concerto by Jukka Tiensuu with Tampere Philharmonic.
Anssi Karttunen has worked with world Symphony, NHK Orchestra, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Modern, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, and many more. He also performs regularly as soloist and chamber musician at Europe Lockenhaus, Berlin, Venice, Strasbourg, and Helsinki. His Zebra Trio, with violinist Ernst Kovacic and violist Steven Dann, performs concerts on both sides of the Atlantic.
His recordings traverse a broad musical spectrum, from Beethoven piano on period instruments, to 20th century solo pieces, to concertos performed with the London Sinfonietta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Esa recordings of concertos by Lindberg, Saariaho, and Salonen with Sony Classical. With Deutsche Grammophon, he released a DVD of Tan Dun's The Map for cello, video, and orchestra. Two of Anssi Karttunen chamber music works with the composer and the clarinetist Kari Kriikku on Ondine and Henri Dutilleux Tout un monde lointain with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Esa on Deutsche Grammophon, which was chosen as best contemporary recording of the year 2013.
Born in 1960, Anssi Karttunen studied with Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré and Tibor de Machula, among others. From 1999 until 2005 he was principal cellist with the London Sinfonietta. Between 1994 and 1998, he was the Artistic Director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and from 1994 until 1997, of the Suvisoitto Festival in Porvoo, Finland. Having directed the Helsinki Biennale in 1995, he has been Artistic Director of its successor, the Musica Nova festival, since the autumn of 2013.
He frequently teaches masterclasses, for example in 2012 together with Kaija Saariaho at Carnegie Hall, at the 2012 Cello Biennial Amsterdam and regularly since 2008 at the workshop series Creative Dialogue, offered in collaboration with the Sibelius Academy in Santa Fe. He starts teaching at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris this autumn.
Anssi Karttunen plays on a Francesco Ruggeri cello.

Seitaro Ishikawa

Hiroyuki Itoh

Hiroyo Imagawa

Nozomi Ueda

Michiaki Ueno

Yoshie Ueno

Masanori Oishi

Receiving his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (now Tokyo Unversity of the Arts), Oishi went to France to study at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2001. He graduated with top honors (mention très bien) in saxophone, chamber music, and free improvisation. The same year he advanced to the school’s 3rd level Chamber Music Course (Classe de Musique de Chambre, 3e cycle de perfectionnement), completing it in 2007. From 2002 to 2004 he studied on a research grant from Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs in their Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists.
Before returning to Japan in 2008, Oishi played not only in France, but in various countries in Europe, Africa and Asia.
His participation in the Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation-sponsored recital series B→C 100 garnered him high acclaim. Subsequently, he appeared in such events as the Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation Composium, the Suntory Music Foundation Summer Festival, and the Takefu International Music Festival. He also appeared in 2008 in a dance collaboration at the late Pina Bausch’s dance festival in Germany (Internationale Tanzmesse NRW).
He has worked extensively, focusing on contemporary and classical music, but also playing concerts, on television and radio, in addition to recording music for commercials. He has released two albums with the Blue Aurora Saxophone Quartet, of which he is a member. His contemporary music group, Tokyo Gen’On Project received the 13th Saji Keizo Prize. He is a lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts, Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, and Toho College of Music (as of 2015).website

Tomoki Tai

Kaori Okuma

Maki Ota

Japanese soprano Maki Ota specializes in the performance of experimental and avant-garde contemporary vocal music.
After completing her engagement as a member of Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, Ota was granted residency scholarship from the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program to reside in Rome for her research project focusing on vocal compositions by Giacinto Scelsi under the supervision of Michiko Hirayama, specialist of Scelsi’s vocal music and life long collaborator of the composer.
Hailed for her highly polished vocal technique and vibrant expression, Ota has appeared at various contemporary music festivals and concert series all over Europe and in her home country. The highlights of the recent seasons include appearances in Scelsi Festival (Basel), II 50° Festival di Nuova Consonanza (Rome), Takefu International Music Festival, Izumi Sinfonietta regular program (Osaka), Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation "Recital Series [B →C]", Suntory Foundation of Arts Summer Festival, among others.
Born in Osaka, Japan. Ota received bachelor’s degree from Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts and master’s degree from Osaka College of Music.

Yoshiaki Onishi

Born in Hokkaido, Japan in 1981, composer/conductor Yoshiaki Onishi is currently Associate Professor at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, Japan. Previously he was a Teaching Fellow at Columbia University in New York, where he received his doctorate degree in 2015. His principal teachers there were Fabien Levy, Fred Lerdahl, Tristan Murail and George Lewis. He received the Artist Diploma (2008) and the Master of Music degrees (2007) in music composition from Yale School of Music. Before Yale, he studied music composition, clarinet and conducting at University of the Pacific, Conservatory of Music (Stockton, California), where he graduated in 2004 with the highest honor.
Written by a New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini in 2010 as: “[…] a composer who can draw such varied, eerily alluring sounds,” Onishi's music has been performed worldwide by organizations such as New Japan Philharmonic, Nieuw Ensemble, Asko|Schonberg Ensemble, JACK Quartet and Wet Ink Ensemble.
Onishi is a recipient of several honors. With his 2010 work Depart dans…, he was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize 2011, one of the most prestigious awards given to young composers. Other recent honors include an artistic residency fellowship from Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbertide, Italy, as well as a commission from Ensemble Intercontemporain as a result of Projet Tremplin.
As a conductor, Onishi is in great demand. Recent conducting engagements include a concert “An Evening of Today 2014” with Nieuw Ensemble in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Previously he served as an assistant conductor to the Columbia University Orchestra from 2011 to 2013. He conducted many ensembles and orchestras, working closely with composers of his generation.
His works are published by Edition Gravis in Berlin, Germany. His website can be found at:website

Saori Oya

Tomoko Kasai

Isamu Kanai

Masamichi Kinoshita

Yuuna Shinohara

Shu-hou

Tosiya Suzuki

Slowind Quintet

Slowind is made up of soloists from the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. As well as performing the standard repertoire for wind quintet both in Slovenia and abroad, the ensemble also dedicates itself to a diverse range of chamber music, collaborating with internationally renowned performers such as Heinz Holliger, Robert Aitken, Alexander Lonquich, Arvid Engegård, Ursula Oppens, Christiane Iven, Garth Knox, Marisol Montalvo, Matthias Pintscher, Naoko Yoshino, Mayumi Miyata and many others. It is particularly active in the area of new music, and is a regular guest at the most important contemporary music festivals (Ars Musica Brussels, Biennale Bern, Klangspuren Innsbruck, New Music Concerts Series Toronto, Zeitklaänge Feldkirch, Contempuls Prague, Takefu International Music Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Music Biennale Zagreb). Amongst the numerous composers who have written new works for Slowind are Vinko Globokar, Elliott Carter, Lojze Lebič, Jürg Wyttenbach, Nina Šenk and Martin Smolka.
For the last fifteen years, the quintet has promoted international modern and contemporary chamber repertoire at its own concert cycle, the Slowind Festival, which provides an opportunity to systematically present important composers of international modernism, such as Giacinto Scelsi, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Vareèse, Vinko Globokar, Matthias Pintscher, Toru Takemitsu and, not least, Elliott Carter, to whom the entire Slowind Festival was dedicated in 2011. At this festival, Slowind gave the Slovenian premieres of 25 of Carter's solo, chamber an orchestral compositions, and it was for this very festival that Elliott Carter dedicated one of his last compositions - Trije glasbeniki (2011).
Slowind appears on several CDs and DVDs with works by Leoš Janáček, Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Paul Hindemith, Vinko Globokar, Arnold Schönberg, Gustav Mahler and many other composers. The American record company Bridge Records recently released a CD with Elliott Carter's Nine by Five performed by the Slowind Wind Quintet.
For its achievements, Slowind received the Župančič Prize of the City of Ljubljana in 1999, and the Prešeren Fund Prize, a prestigious Slovenian state award in the field of culture, in 2003.

Tadashi Tajima

Ayako Tahara

Yuya Tsuda

Diana Rotaru

One of the most visible young Romanian composers, Diana Rotaru (b. 1981, Bucharest) has written over 50 works, from chamber and orchestral music to multimedia shows and film soundtracks. Her music explores different expressive directions, such as hypnagogia or pre-oneiric aesthetics, feminine psyche and subtle eroticism or imaginary folklore. She has also been active as a promoter of new music in Romania, being the artistic director of SonoMania new music ensemble, co-artistic director of InnerSound International New Arts Festival and the main coordinator of the Romanian Music Information Center (CIMRO). She has worked with the SeduCant synchretic group in various multimedia projects. She is currently teaching at the National University of Music in Bucharest (Composition and Compositional Practice, Music Anaysis).
Diana Rotaru studied with Ştefan Niculescu and Dan Dediu at the National University of Music in Bucharest (2000-2005) ? where she has a PhD in Composition (with the dissertation The Recent Trance and the Principle of Repetition in New Music, 2012) ? and with Frederic Durieux at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (2005-2006). She participated at different summer composition courses such as Acanthes (Metz, 2008), Voix Nouvelles-Royaumont (2002 and 2006), or the International Bartok Seminary (Szombathely, 2003).
She was a resident at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris (Autumn 2007), on a George Enescu grant from the Romanian Cultural Institute. In April 2011 she was an artist-in-residence at Villa Strauli, Winterthur (Switzerland), at the invitation of Ensemble TaG, who performed her music in two concerts during that period (Verborgen in einer Muschel/ Hidden Inside a Shell - Theater am Gleis and Meet the Artist: Diana Rotaru -Villa Strauli). In April-June 2015 she was Artist-in-Residence in Vienna, with a grant offered by the Austrian Federal Chancellery and KulturKontakt Vienna.
She has won numerous prizes, among which the Romanian Academy's George Enescu Award (2010), the ISCM-IAMIC Young Composer Award (World Music Days, Vilnius, 2008), the Irino Prize (Japan, 2004) or the George Enescu Prize ex-aequo (Romania, 2003 and 2005). Her works have been commissioned by Ensemble XXI (Dijon), Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Parlor for svin, Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Takefu International Music Festival, etc.
Website

Diego Ramos

(Madrid, 1989) After his studies in Madrid und Düsseldorf, he has been playing in several orchestras and ensembles: Ensemble Modern, MusikFabrik, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Interface, Latinamerican Youth Orchestra, Spanish Radio Orchestra... and has worked with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pascal Rophé, Peter Rundel and Peter Eötvös. He performs regularly at festivals and concert venues in Germany, Spain, England, France, Holland, Italy, etc.
From 2012 until 2014 he takes part at the International Ensemble Modern Academy as a violinist and composer. At that time he founds the Améi Quartett and the Mondstein Duo (Percussion/Violin), collaborating with Helmut Lachenmann and Nicolaus A. Huber and participating succesfully in several competitions (Lenzewski Competition, Pergamenschikow Competition, Competition of the Polytechnische Gesellschaft). He is also member of the Isenburg Quartett from winter 2013.
His compositional activity is influenced by teachers, composers and performers such as Enrique Blanco, Teresa Catalan, Manfred Trojahn, Dietmar Wiesner and Valentin Garvie. His works have been already played in Spain, Germany, Holland, Japan and Switzerland by renowned musicians and ensembles (MusikFabrik, Ensemble Modern Academie, Spanish National Youth Orchestra, sonic.art Saxophone Quartet, Mie Miki, Naoko Yoshino...). His several faces as a musicians come together in the fields of improvisation, performance and music theatre, always trying to keep a balance between being a perfoming composer and a composing violinist. He has given improvisation workshops at the Frankfurt University of Music and his work in progress Der Sogenannte, an improvisation performance premiered in Offenbach (Germany), developes further as a concert piece and in form of workshops for young students (Stuttgart, Cologne).

Ken-ichi Nakagawa

Federico Gardella

Federico Gardella was born in Milan in 1979.
His music has featured in many festivals and concert seasons in Tokyo (Tokyo Opera City), Milan (Festival Milano Musica, Rondò/Divertimento Ensemble, Teatro Dal Verme, Sala Verdi del Conservatorio), Royaumont (Voix Nouvelles), Florence (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Festival Play It!), Riga (Festival Arena/Great Guild Concert Hall), Turin (MiTo SettembreMusica, Unione Musicale, Rai NuovaMusica/Auditorium Rai “Arturo Toscanini”), Lodz (Lodz Philharmonic Hall), Bologna (Accademia Filarmonica), New York (Columbia University, IKIF/Mannes College of Music), Parma (Festival Traiettorie), Takefu (Takefu International Music Festival), Venice (La Biennale di Venezia, Teatro Malibran), Lausanne (Société de Musique Contemporaine), Latina (Festival Pontino), Boston (Harvard University, Boston University), Rome (Auditorium Parco della Musica), Bruxelles (Flagey) and Madrid (Auditorio Nacional de Música).
He has received commissions from numerous institutions including the Fondazione ORT-Orchestra della Toscana, the Takefu International Music Festival, the Fondazione Spinola Banna per l'Arte and the Teatro La Fenice di Venezia. He has been composer in residence at the Divertimento Ensemble and the Fondation Royaumont.
He has won prizes in various international composition competitions including the Tansman International Competition of Musical Personalities in Lodz and in 2009 he was assigned the Takefu International Composition Award.
In 2012 he was awarded the First Prize of the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award in Tokyo and in 2014 he was assigned the Special Prize “Una Vita nella Musica - Giovani” at the Teatro La Fenice di Venezia.
His compositions, conducted among others by Zsolt Nagy, Tito Ceccherini, Guillaume Bourgogne, Carlo Boccadoro, Naohiro Totsuka, Sandro Gorli and Jonathan Webb, have been performed by orchestras such as the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra della Toscana, the Lodz Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia; another important aspect is his collaboration with chamber groups and ensembles specializing in the contemporary repertoire, such as the Trio di Parma, the Quatuor Diotima, the Hilliard Ensemble, the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, the Vertixe Sonora Ensemble and the Divertimento Ensemble.
In 2014 Mano d'erba (for orchestra) has been chosen as “recommended work” at the International Rostrum of Composers in Helsinki. His works have been broadcast on the radio in Italy (Radio Tre), Australia (ABC Radio), Sweden (Sveriges Radio), Netherlands (NPO), Hong Kong (RTHK), France (Radio France), Japan (NHK), Iceland (RÚV) and Austria (ORF).
Federico Gardella studied the piano with Piero Rattalino and Riccardo Risaliti at the Milan Conservatory where he graduated with distinction and then furthered his studies with Klaus Hellwig at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He studied composition at the Milan Conservatory with Sonia Bo and then took advanced courses with Azio Corghi at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and with Alessandro Solbiati at the Corsi di Perfezionamento in Sermoneta and in the Milan Conservatory, where he graduated summa cum laude. Moreover, his acquaintance with Brian Ferneyhough and Toshio Hosokawa has been of significant importance to his artistic development.
Federico Gardella teaches composition at the Conservatory of Monopoli. His music is published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni-SugarMusic S.p.A. in Milan.

Eiko Hiramatsu

Yasutaka Hemmi

Takayo Matsumura

Max Nyffeler

Mario Caroli

Italian flutist Mario Caroli started the music at the age of 14 and studied with Annamaria Morini and Manuela Wiesler. He got the very coveted international Kranichsteiner Prize in Darmstadt (Toshio Hosokawa was in the jury) when he was only 22. He got also a PhD in Philosophy. Mario is one of the most acclaimed flute soloists of our days, and he has been playing all over the world with orchestras including the Philharmonia London, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the SWR and WDR Symphonic Orchestras. Many of the greatest living composers have dedicated to him outstanding solo pieces and concertos, and Mario belongs to the very small cercle of artists capable of playing with the same vitality, the same sensibility and vibrant personality the most classical composition as well as the most cutting edge contemporary piece.
He has recorded more than 40 cds, praised by the critics of the whole world. A teacher among the most required today, Mario teaches both in France and Swiss at the Universitites of Strasbourg, where he lives, and Lugano.
He plays a Miyazawa platinum flute

Michel leThiec

At the moment, the french clarinettist Michel Lethiec is considered to be one of the most eminent figures on the world-wide classica musical scene. Besides his numerous concert and festival performances, he is also devoted to teaching and participates actively in the research and the distribution of the repertoire.
He has played as a soloist and chamber musician with the most eminent performers and the most famous orchestras.
Devoted to contemporary music, he has performed premières of numerous pieces and concertos by composers such as: Penderecki, Corigliano, Denisow, Maratka, Ballif, Landowski, Decoust, Fourchotte, Scolai, Narita, Brotons, Giraud, Lee...
His important discography for Lyrinx, Naxos, Arion, RCA, Bis Talent and Actes Sud includes two Grands Prix du Disque.
He has recorded, as a world première, the three concertos by Penderecki (Arion), as well as a CD devoted to the chamber music of the same composer (Naxos), also a world première.
« Porgy and Bess » Suite for clarinet and orchestra, transcribed for him by Frank Villard, has recently be released by Naxos and the Quintets by Rimsky-Korsakov and Rubinstein are available since 212 (Talent) as well as « Les rêves et les prières d'Isaac l'aveugle » and other pieces by Bloch (Saphir, with the Artis Quartet and Itamar Golan).
He teaches at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and at the Nice Conservatoire and gives frequently masterclasses in other renowned music schools.
He also participates regularly as a member of the jury in international competitions (Geneva, Leipzig, Prague, Munich, Osaka…).
He is the Artistic Director of the prestigious Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, where he welcomes every year the greatest chamber musicians and their students to perform original programmes, which they also present at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, as well as in other international capital cities.
Michel Lethiec is Chevalier of the Ordre National du Merite and of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres.

Fumika Mohri

Akiko Yamada

Kazuhito Yamane

Junko Yamamoto

Gen Yokosaka

Rüdiger Bohn