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 condu ...

and Minao Shibata at the

Toho Gakuen School of Music is a private university, 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, Chōfu-shi, ...

. 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, percu ...

'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 $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

to study in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

under

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and enginee ...

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 foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

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 and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

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. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

(solo pieces, also

Visions de l'Amen ''Visions de l'Amen'' ("Visions of the Amen") is a suite of seven pieces for two pianos by the French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992), commissioned for the Concerts de la PléiadeLiner notes by Nigel Simeone on the recording of Steven Osbo ...

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 Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

, 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 mu ...

, Takemitsu, the Indonesian composer Slamet Abdul Sjukur,

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 an 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 technology. Beyond com ...

. J.S. Bach'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 virt ...

and the complete ''Inventions and Sinfonias''; two volumes of Satie's solo piano music; a Sonata of

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

and Marche et Reminiscences pour mon dernier voyage of

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano p ...

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 Maceda was born in Manila, Philippines, he studied piano, comp ...

Sofia Gubaidulina Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (24 October 1931 – 13 March 2025) was a Soviet and Russian composer of Modernism (music), modernist Holy minimalism, sacred music. She was highly prolific, producing numerous Chamber music, chamber, Orchestra, orch ...

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

and

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

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 Japanese classical composers 20th-century Japanese classical pianists 20th-century Japanese male musicians 21st-century Japanese classical composers 21st-century Japanese classical pianists 21st-century Japanese male musicians Composers from Tokyo Contemporary classical music performers 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