University of Maryland, Baltimore County
April 4-6, 2003
Guest Composers:
Joji Yuasa
Toshi Ichiyanagi
Tokuhide Niimi
Akira Nishimura
Western art
music has existed for a relatively short time in Japan - it is only since the 1950's, countering the rush in Japan to adopt all that is Western, that some
composers, led by Yuasa (b.1929), Mayuzumi (1929-97), Takemitsu (1930-96), and
Ichiyanagi (b.1933), began to move away from stylistic modeling of
nineteenth-century European forms and twentieth-century dodecaphony towards a
more individualistic approach. Concerned with reflecting philosophical and
musical elements from their own culture, they began to discover and develop
their own music. The music of these artists reflects a new global confluence
of multiple cultures - a powerful cross-fertilization of aesthetics and musical
characteristics from both East and West. The music is reflective of a variety of
aspects of contemporary Japanese and Western societies, while at the same time
deeply rooted in a traditional culture that has evolved over many
years.
UMBC will
host a three-day symposium of performances, lecture-recitals, panel discussions,
and paper presentations on topics that concern Japanese music from the widest
possible range of disciplines and expertise. Four guest composers of
international stature will participate in the symposium Ð
Toshi
Ichiyanagi, who
worked with John Cage in the early 1960's in New York, and has ever since
introduced Japan to experimental music; Joji
Yuasa, who was a
member of the jikken kobo in the 1950's and a Professor of Music at the
University of California, San Diego from 1981-94; Akira
Nishimura, who has
received numerous international awards and commissions for his music that is
influenced by historic Japanese music and elements from other Asian cultures;
and Tokuhide
Niimi, who has
received international recognition for works that span musical genres from
ballet, to choral, to orchestral and chamber music, to music for traditional
Japanese instruments. Performances
during the symposium will include a broad range of works for different genres
(solo instrument, chamber music, computer and electronic music, traditional instruments) by Yuasa, Ichiyanagi, Nishimura, and Niimi, as well as
other Japanese composers. They will include the premiere of a new work by Nishimura. The
performers for these concerts will include RUCKUS (the
contemporary music ensemble at UMBC), faculty and students of the UMBC
Department of Music, and guest musicians from the Baltimore/Washington DC area
and other international new music centers including Ossia (new music ensemble
from the Eastman School of Music), and pianist Paul Hoffmann. This symposium is the fifth in a series of events since 1992 to address
Japanese and other Asian musics, organized by Tanosaki and Richards. Visit the
websites of the other four to view programs, abstracts, papers, and lecture
transcriptions - Asian Music in America:
A Confluence of Two Worlds, and Music of Japan
Today: Tradition and Innovation I
(1992), II (1994), and III (1997).
Schedule of eventsVisiting Scholars and MusiciansRegistration and LodgingAbout UMBC and its
Department of MusicTravel to
UMBC