Akira Nishimura

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Akira Nishimura ( Japanese 西村 朗 Nishimura Akira ; born September 8, 1953 in Osaka ) is a Japanese composer .

Life

Nishimura studied composition and music theory at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts from 1973 to 1980 . a. with Tomojirō Ikenouchi , Akio Yashiro and Michio Mamiya . In addition, he took the subjects of traditional Asian music, religion , aesthetics and cosmology with Fumio Koizumi - areas of interest that flow into his composition.

He teaches at the Tokyo Music Academy and works for the Japanese Composers Association. He was also composer in residence with the Kanazawa Orchestra from 1993 to 1994 and with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra from 1994 to 1997. As music director, he directs the Izumi Sinfonietta, which he founded in 2000, and the Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy & Festival since 2010 .

Create

Nishimura's work encompasses almost all genres - an opera ( Asters 2019), a chamber opera ( Eshi, der Maler 1999 based on Ryūnosuke Akutagawa ) and orchestral works (including symphonies and concerts), as well as choral, chamber music, songs, works for organ, piano, Harp, guitar, drums and music for traditional Japanese instruments such as koto , shakuhachi , shamisen and hichiriki . Overall, Nishimura's music moves in the field of tension between Asian tradition and Western modernity in the wake of György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis . Nishimura, writes music expert Klaus-Michael Hinz, is “a contemporary musician trained in Europe and an emphatically traditional Japanese at the same time”.

Characteristic of Nishimura's early work is the confrontation with heterophony , a form of music typical of traditional East Asian music, which moves between homophony and polyphony and in whose various layers intervals, rhythms and melodies change subtly. In addition to heterophony, he is also interested in Indonesian gamelan music and the Japanese gagaku tradition. Nishimura's style shows references to Ligeti's “micropolyphony”, but it is clearly Asian. The traditional Far Eastern spirituality serves as his spiritual background, which is indicated in work titles such as Into the Light of the Eternal Chaos (1990), Padma Incarnation (1997) and Vision and Mantra (2007). His musical language is committed to the modern age - often shaped by eruptive discharges and meditative sound bands. In 2019 his first great opera came out: Asters . The world premiere took place at the New National Theater Tokyo under the direction of Kazushi Ono and directed by Yoshi Oida , the libretto is based on a novella by Jun Ishikawa .

Works by him have been performed worldwide a. a. by the Kronos Quartet , the Arditti Quartet and the Ensemble Elision , at the Ultima Festival for Contemporary Music Oslo , at the Warsaw Autumn and at Wien Modern . The orchestras that have performed Nishimura's works include a. the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra , the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra , the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra , the Yomiuri-Nippon-Sinfonieorchester , the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra , the Württembergische Philharmonie , the Bruckner Orchester Linz and the Haydn-Orchester Bolzano and Trient . Soloists such as Karl Leister , Wolfgang Boettcher , Thomas Indermühle , Saschko Gawriloff , Aki Takahashi and Aurèle Nicolet campaigned for his work, as did conductors such as Matthias Bamert , Alan Gilbert , Antoni Wit , Tan Dun and Günter Neuhold .

Awards

Already in 1974 Nishimura won the composition prize at the Japanese Music Competition. In 1977 he won first prize in the composition category at the Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth for his string quartet Heterophony (1975) and the Luigi Dallapiccola Composition Award for Mutazioni (1977). In 1980 his composition Kecak (1979) was chosen as the best work by the International Rostrum of Composers of the UNESCO International Music Council . Nishimura has received several awards at the ISCM World Music Days - 1982, 1984, 1988 and 1990. Nishimura has also received the Otaka Prize several times (1988, 1992, 1993, 2008 and 2011). In addition to numerous other awards, he won the ExxonMobil Music Prize in 2001 and the Suntory Music Award in 2004 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Akira Nishimura in: zen-on (English)
  2. ^ A b Nicolas Slonimsky , Laura Kuhn, Dennis McIntire: Nishimura, Akira. In: Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. November 7, 2019, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Kazushi Ishida:  Nishimura, Akira. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 12 (Mercadante - Paix). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1122-5  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  4. ↑ Nishimura, Akira on: klassika.info
  5. ↑ According to other sources, 1992 to 1993
  6. ↑ Musical Director Akira Nishimura on: izumihall (English)
  7. ↑ Music Director Akira Nishimura on: kusa2 (English)
  8. ↑ a b c d Profile on: amati-tokyo (English)
  9. ^ Art Lange: Akira Nishimura. Orchestral Works. In: Fanfare Vol. 31, 6. 2008, accessed on November 18, 2019 (English).
  10. ↑ Klaus-Michael Hinz: “All notes are the voice of Buddha.” Akira Nishimura - a portrait . In: MusikTexte . No. 60 , August 1995, ISSN  0178-8884 ( oag.jp [PDF; accessed November 18, 2019]).
  11. ↑ a b Yoko Narazaki:  Nishimura, Akira. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  12. ↑ Jamie Findlay: Akira Nihimura's "Asters": A Major New Japanese Opera. In: Opera Today. March 14, 2019, accessed November 19, 2019 .
  13. ^ Concours Reine Elisabeth, 1st prize
personal data
SURNAME Nishimura, Akira
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 西村 朗 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese composer
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Osaka