NMC

Dai Fujikura

TRACKLISTING

1 Secret Forest 17’31

Art Respirant/ Takaseki

2 Rubi(co)n 1’08

Kate Romano, clarinet

3 Phantom Pulse 20’48

Lucerne Festival Percussion Group/ Cerutti

4 Eternal Escape 3’50

Adrian Bradbury, cello

5 - 9 Okeanos 27’29

Okeanos

Released 2012

Dai Fujikura

Although Dai Fujikura was born in Osaka, Japan, he has now spent more than 20 years in the UK where he studied

composition with Edwin Roxburgh, Daryl Runswick and George Benjamin. During the last decade he has been the

recipient of numerous prizes, including the Huddersfield Festival Young Composers Award and a Royal Philharmonic

Society Award in this country, Internationaler Wiener Composition Prize, the Paul Hindemith Prize in Austria and

Germany respectively, and both the OTAKA and Akutagawa awards in 2009.

Dai's music is inspired by the 'beauty, form and movement of swarms of fish and birds', and by the vivid colours and

textures of sounds. This is explored in Secret Forest and Okeanos which which combines oboe, viola and clarinet with Japanese instruments. Dai's works are frequently performed to an international audience and he has recently collaborated on a new album with experimental musician and ex-Japan singer, David Sylvian.

Okeanos

Okeanos was brought together in 2001 with the aim of creating opportunities for young composers, reaching out to new audiences, initiating pioneering performance events, and collaborating with other art forms. The ensemble has been featured on Radio 3’s ‘Hear & Now’ and have had their recordings featured on Australian and UK radio. They have premiered over 100 works, including commissions from Robin Holloway, John Joubert, Howard Skempton, Judith Weir, Nicola Lefanu, Judith Bingham and many other composers of international standing. Okeanos have a close relationship with Dai Fujikura and have given numerous performances of his work.

Art Respirant / Ken Takaseki, conductor

Art Respirant is a chamber ensemble from Japan made up of young musicians. As well as performers, the group includes composers and invests a large proportion of its efforts in supporting and generating new music.

Born in Tokyo in 1955, Ken Takaseki graduated from Toho Gakuen High School and enrolled in the Toho Gakuen School of music. Hewon the Karajan Conducting Competition in 1977 while still at university.

After graduating from university he studied at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy (Karajan Foundation) at the invitation of H. von Karajan and worked as his assistant until 1985. He also studied under Hideo Saito, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Seiji Ozawa, and Tadashi Mori, and received instruction from Lenard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Andr'e Previn and Igor Markevich.

He made his debut as a conductor in Europe with the Bergen Symphony Orchestra of Norway in 1981, won the Hans Swarowsky International Conducting Competition held in Vienna in 1984 and made his debut in Japan in the following year at the subscription concert of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Takaseki served as musical director and chief conductor of the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 1990 and has been musical director of the Gumma Symphony Orchestra since 1993 and conductor of the Shin-Nihon Philharmonic Orchestra since 1994.

Ken Takaseki is regarded as one of the most authoritative figures in Japan's conducting world after directing the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in 1986 and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 1991. He received the Akio Watanabe Music Foundation Music Award in 1996, And became Appointed chief conductor of our orchestra in April 1997.

Lucerne Percussion Group/ Michel Cerutti, conductor

Photo credit:

Dai Fujikura by Milena Mihaylova