is a composer, pianist, critic, conductor, and author.

Biography

Yuji Takahashi studied under

Roh Ogura was a Japanese composer and writer. Biography He was born in Kitakyushu and lived in Tokyo and Kamakura. First he learned French Modern Music under Shiro Fukai and Tomojiro Ikenouchi. Then he studied under Joseph Rosenstock about how to conduc ...

and

Minao Shibata ; September 29, 1916, Tokyo – February 2, 1996, Tokyo) was a Japanese composer. Minao studied botany at Tokyo University, graduating in 1939, and made further studies in the fine arts while studying music privately with Saburo Moroi and playin ...

at the

Toho Gakuen School of Music is a private music school in Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. History Toho Gakuen was founded in 1948 in Ichigaya (Tokyo) as the Music School for Children, and two years later moved to Sengawa (current address at Wakabacyo, Chofushi, Tokyo) and opened t ...

. In 1960, he made his debut as a pianist by performing

Bo Nilsson Bo Nilsson (1 May 1937 – 25 June 2018) was a Swedish composer and lyricist. Career Bo Nilsson was born in Skellefteå, and first drew notice as a composer at the age of 18 when his ''Zwei Stücke'' (Two Pieces) for flute, bass clarinet, perc ...

's ''Quantitäten''. He received a grant from

The Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

to study in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

under

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...

in 1962 and stayed in Europe until 1966, also stayed in New York under

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

scholarship until 1972. He founded ' Suigyu Gakudan' (Water Buffalo band) in 1978 as introducing international protest songs, starting from Thailand, mainly performing Asian songs, also published monthly journal ' Suigyu Tsushin'.

Selected works

* ''Time'' (tape) * ''Chromamorphe I'' (fl, hrn in F, trp in C, trb, vib, vn, cb) * ''Chromamorphe II'' (pf) * ''6 Stoicheia'' (4vn) * ''Rosace I'' (amplified vn) * ''Rosace II'' (pf) * ''Operation Euler'' (2 or 3ob) * ''Metathesis I'' (pf) * ''Manangali'' (didactic piece for women's chorus) * ''Three Poems of Mao Tse-Tung'' (pf or vo ho pf) * ''Chained Hands in Prayer'' (pf) * ''For You I Sing This Song'' (cl in B flat, vn, vc, pf) (1976) * ''Ji(t)'' (fl, pf) * ''Sieben Rosen hat ein Strauch'' (vn) * ''Kwanju, May 1980'' (pf) * ''The Pain of the Wandering Wind'' (pf) * ''Like a Water-Buffalo'' (acc) * ''Turn the Corner of the Morning'' (perc) * ''Thread Cogwheels'' (koto, orch) * ''Insomnia'' (vn, hp) * ''Bed Story'' (vo, koto) * ''Sea of Mud'' (cho, perc) * ''Like Swans Leaving the Lake'', for viola and accordion (1995) * ''Mimi no ho'', ''Sail of the Ears'', for Shō, viola and reciter (1994) * ''Viola of Dmitri Shostakovich'', for viola solo (2002)

Selected discography

Yuji Takahashi has over 100 Japanese releases to his credit.

As pianist

The complete works of

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...

and

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

, music by

Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century. His m ...

(solo pieces, also Visions de l'Amen with

Peter Serkin Peter Adolf Serkin (July 24, 1947 – February 1, 2020) was an American classical pianist. He won the Grammy Award for Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist in 1966, and he performed globally, known for not only "technically pristine" pl ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

, Rzewski, Na,

Cornelius Cardew Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, ...

, Takemitsu, the Indonesian composer

Slamet Abdul Sjukur Slamet A. Sjukur (30 June 1935 – 24 March 2015) was the founding father of contemporary Indonesian music. He studied and worked in Paris under Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux. He was a lecturer at IKJ (Institut Kesenian Jakarta) but beca ...

Earle Brown Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since� ...

and

Roger Reynolds Roger Lee Reynolds (born July 18, 1934) is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer. He is known for his capacity to integrate diverse ideas and resources, and for the seamless blending of traditional musical sounds with those newly enabled by t ...

J.S. Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suite ...

's ''The Art of the Fugue'' (BWV 1080), the E minor

Toccata Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuo ...

and the complete ''Inventions and Sinfonias''; two volumes of

Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

's solo piano music; a Sonata of

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (22 November 17101 July 1784), the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach, was a German composer and performer. Despite his acknowledged genius as an organist, improviser and composer ...

and Marche et Reminiscences pour mon dernier voyage of

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

As conductor

Music by

José Maceda José Montserrat Maceda (31 January 1917 – 5 May 2004) was a Filipino ethnomusicologist and composer. He was named a National Artist of the Philippines for Music in 1998. Life Born in Manila, Philippines, he studied piano, composition ...

Sofia Gubaidulina Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (russian: Софи́я Асгáтовна Губaйду́лина, link=no , tt-Cyrl, София Әсгать кызы Гобәйдуллина; born 24 October 1931) is a Soviet-Russian composer and an established ...

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

and

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...

Suigyu Gakudan

* 1984 Kyugyo (Cassette) * 2001 Suigyu Gakudan (CD)

Award

* 2006

Foundation for Contemporary Arts The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City that offers financial support and recognition to contemporary performing and visual artists through awards for artistic innovation and potential. It was ...

Grants to Artists Award.

References

''Bio in Bach Cantatas''

External links

Official website
in Japanese
Suigyu
in Japanese
Discogs
1938 births 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century Japanese male musicians 21st-century classical composers 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century Japanese male musicians Contemporary classical music performers Japanese classical composers Japanese classical pianists Japanese contemporary classical composers Japanese male classical composers Japanese male classical pianists Japanese male writers Living people Toho Gakuen School of Music alumni {{japan-writer-stub