Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ) is composed of an orchestra and a chorus specializing in

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...

, playing on

period instruments In the historically informed performance movement, musicians perform classical music using restored or replicated versions of the instruments for which it was originally written. Often performances by such musicians are said to be "on authentic ...

. It was founded in 1990 by

Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for wh ...

with the purpose of introducing Japanese audiences to European Baroque music; Suzuki is still the music director. The ensemble has recorded all of Bach’s cantatas, a project that extended from 1995 to 2018 and accounts for over half of its discography.

History

The ensemble was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki who is still its music director Since then, they have become sought-after performers, collaborating with European artists such as Max von Egmond,

Nancy Argenta Nancy Argenta is a Canadian soprano singer, best known for performing music from the pre-classical era. She has won international acclaim, and is considered one of the leading Handel sopranos of her time. Life She was born in Nelson, British Col ...

, Christoph Prégardien,

Peter Kooy Peter Kooij (or, internationally Kooy, born 1954, in Soest) is a Dutch bass singer who specializes in baroque music. Biography Kooij started his musical career at 6 years as a choir boy. However he started his musical studies as a violin stud ...

, Hana Blažíková,

Monika Frimmer Monika Frimmer (born 1955) is a German soprano in opera and concert. Career Monika Frimmer studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover in Hannover. She studied further in master-classes and worked with Birgit Nilsson, Elisabeth S ...

Michael Chance Michael Chance CBE (born in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom 7 March 1955) is an English countertenor and the founder and Artistic Director of The Grange Festival. Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After growing ...

, Kai Wessel,

Gerd Türk Gerd Türk is a German classical tenor. Biography Gerd Türk received his first musical training as a choir boy at the cathedral of Limburg. He studied in Frankfurt and then at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Richard Levitt and René Jaco ...

Michael Schopper Michael Schopper (born 28 May 1942) is a German bass-baritone in opera and concert, and an academic teacher. Michael Schopper was educated with the Regensburger Domspatzen and studied on a scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volke ...

and Concerto Palatino. They have toured Asia, Europe and North America, with many performances as cultural festivals such as

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

, the

Hong Kong Arts Festival The Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF), launched in 1973, is a major international arts festival committed to enriching the cultural life of the city by presenting leading local and international artists in all genres of the performing arts as we ...

, the

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the Bach Festival in Leipzig, the

Oregon Bach Festival Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) is an annual celebration of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his musical legacy, held in Eugene, Oregon, United States, in late June and early July. About the festival The festival's programming is three-fold. It ...

and the Boston Early Music Festival. Five years after the Collegium was founded, they began a project to record all the

Bach cantata The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas (German: ), are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest can ...

s, finishing in 2013. Working with Swedish record label BIS, the work was performed at a Christian chapel at

Kobe University , also known in the Kansai region as , is a leading Japanese national university located in the city of Kobe, in Hyōgo. It was established in 1949, but the academic origins of Kobe University trace back to the establishment of Kobe Higher Comme ...

, one of the few Christian churches in the country large enough to properly perform such works. These recordings account for over half of the ensemble’s 99-album discography.

The ensemble

The Collegium is based in Tokyo and

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

, with the aim of introducing Japanese audiences to

. It consists of a Baroque orchestra and chorus with about twenty voices and about 25 instrumentalists at any given performance. Unlike most Japanese orchestras, it has some female section-leaders, and it draws on a hand-picked group of European instrumentalists. The vocal soloists are also a mix of Japanese and foreign, Suzuki's argument being that if the Collegium employed only Europeans, there would be little to distinguish it from other period ensembles.

Masaaki Suzuki

Masaaki Suzuki (b. 1954) founded the collegium after being invited to inaugurate a hall in Osaka, bringing together two ensembles already under his direction. Suzuki is a pioneer of early-music performance in East Asia and an international Bach authority. He graduated Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and later attended the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, studying under Piet Kee and Ton Koopman.

Artistry

The focus of the ensemble, for which they are noted, is the works of Bach and those Protestant German composers that influenced him such as Dietrich Buxtehude,

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

Johann Hermann Schein Johann Hermann Schein (20 January 1586 – 19 November 1630) was a German composer of the early Baroque era. He was Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1615 to 1630. He was one of the first to import the early Italian stylistic innovations into Germa ...

and

Georg Böhm Georg Böhm (2 September 1661 – 18 May 1733) was a German Baroque organist and composer. He is notable for his development of the chorale partita and for his influence on the young J. S. Bach. Life Böhm was born in 1661 in Hohenkirchen. H ...

. Best known for their performances of Bach’s Cantatas, they have also performed his

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, as well as Handel’s ''

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'' and Monteverdi's ''

Vespers Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic (both Latin liturgical rites, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern), Lutheranism, Lutheran, and Anglican ...

''. Most of these works are for a full chorus, but it also presents smaller programs for soloists and small vocal groups.

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identifies Suzuki’s approach to Bach’s music as falling between two extremes, that of large ensembles (now regarded as old-fashioned in this repertoire), and on the other hand that of purists with one voice per part. According to Ross, Suzuki's interpretations tend towards subtlety rather than flamboyance avoiding "abrupt accents, florid ornaments, and freewheeling tempos that are fashionable in Baroque performance practice". Ross praises Suzuki's clarity and musicality but suggests that at times the performances can seem to lack force. The BBC reviewed a 2013 release in the cantata series as "Fluently stylish and idiomatic, the performers live and breathe Bach's music with as much immediacy as if it had been composed yesterday".

Members

Concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...

(violin, viola and viola d'amore):

Ryo Terakado is a Japanese violinist and conductor who specializes in historically informed performance. He also plays the viola, viola d'amore and violoncello da spalla. He has been teaching at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Toho Gakuen School ...

Sopranos

* Hana Blažíková * Minae Fujisaki * Yoshie Hida * Tamiko Hoshi * Mihoko Hoshikawa * Naoco Kaketa * Yumiko Kurisu *

Joanne Lunn Joanne Lunn is an English classical soprano in opera and concert. Career Joanne Lunn studied at Royal College of Music, where she graduated and received the Tagore Gold Medal. Lunn performed in Monteverdi's ''L'incoronazione di Poppea'', Gluc ...

* Aki Matsui *

Dorothee Mields Dorothee Mields (born 15 April 1971) is a German soprano concert singer of Baroque and contemporary music. Career Mields was born in Gelsenkirchen. She studied at the University of the Arts Bremen with Elke Holzmann, Harry van der Kamp and Ga ...

* Sachiko Muratani *

Rachel Nicholls Rachel Nicholls is an English soprano in opera and concert. Career Born in Bedford, England, Nicholls studied French at the University of York, and from 1998 voice at the Royal College of Music with Kathleen Livingstone. In 2001, she won se ...

* Yukari Nonoshita * Carolyn Sampson * Eri Sawae * Mikiko Suzuki * Aki Yanagisawa

Altos

* Hiroya Aoki * Yuko Anazawa * Pascal Bertin *

Robin Blaze Robin Blaze (born 1971 in Manchester) is an English countertenor. Early life The son of Peter Blaze, a professional golfer, and Christine, Blaze and his brother Mark grew up in Shadwell, near Leeds, and was educated at Leeds Grammar School, ...

* Mutsumi Hatano *

Yoshikazu Mera is a Japanese countertenor. His range is three and a half octaves. Originally wanting to become a pop singer, Mera now primarily sings classical music from the West but also classical Japanese music. He appears frequently as a soloist with the ...

* Toshiharu Nakajima * Claudia Schmitz * Tamaki Suzuki * Akira Tachikawa * Chiharu Takahashi * Yukie Tamura * Sumihito Uesugi * Matthew White * Makiko Yamashita

Tenors

* Yusuke Fujii * Hiroto Ishikawa * Takayuki Kagami * Koki Katano *

Jan Kobow Jan Kobow (born 1966) is a German classical tenor in concert, Lied, and Baroque opera. Professional career Jan Kobow was born and raised in Berlin. He was a singer and soloist of the ''Staats- und Domchor, Berlin'' with Christian Grube. He stud ...

Wolfram Lattke Wolfram Lattke (born 1978, Pirna) is a German singer. He is a lyric tenor and began singing aged seven. He was a member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor (1987–1988) and the Thomanerchor The Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig) is a ...

* Satoshi Mizukoshi * Katsuhiko Nakashima * Takanori Onishi *

Makoto Sakurada is a Japanese tenor in opera and concert. Biography Makoto graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts. He went to study in Italy in 1997, and continues to work there. He has recorded Bach cantatas in the complete set directed by Masaaki Su ...

* Michio Shimada * Jun Suzuki * Yosuke Taniguchi * Akira Takizawa *

* Andreas Weller

Basses

* Daisuke Fujii * Jun Hagiwara * Yoshiya Hida * Toru Kaku *

* Tetsuya Odagawa * Yoshitaka Ogasawara * Tetsuya Oi * Kazuhiko Ono * Naoki Sasaki *

Chiyuki Urano is a Japanese classical baritone and bass who has appeared in concert and recital. Urano studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and was awarded prizes at several competitions. He has recorded cantatas and other composit ...

* Yusuke Watanabe *

Roderick Williams Roderick Gregory Coleman Williams OBE (born 1965) is a British baritone and composer. Biography Williams was born in North London to a Welsh father and a Jamaican mother. He attended Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford and Haberdashers' ...

Dominik Wörner Dominik Wörner (born 1970) is a German classical bass singer in concert, Lied and opera. He is a specialist in Baroque music, especially works by Bach, but is open to music of other eras including contemporary music. Career Born in Grünst ...

* Seiji Yoshikawa.

References

{{Authority control Mixed early music groups Japanese orchestras Japanese choirs Musical groups established in 1990 Bach choirs Bach music ensembles 1990 establishments in Japan