TAKAHA, Hiroaki

Hiroaki Takaha studied composition with Kazuo Missé and Atsuhiko Gondai at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, graduating in 2001. He went on to study from 2009 under Édith Lejet in the composition department of the École Normale de Musique in Paris, graduating with a postgraduate diploma. He was awarded a scholarship by the French Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM).
A work by him was selected for inclusion in the composition section of the 68th Japan Music Competition in 1999. He has written many works especially in the fields of chamber and vocal music. He has received commissions from many sources including the Kanagawa Arts Foundation, Pro Musica Nipponia and the NHK Tokyo Children’s Choir, and his works have been performed by ensembles including Ensemble Nomad, Art Respirant, New Arts String Quartet, Toho Gakuen Cello Ensemble and the Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo in Japan and by Ensemble Alternance in France. In 2010 he took part in the Tokyo Wonder Site exchange residency programme, under which he was sent to Finland, where he presented his own compositions at the Avanti! Summer Sounds Festival at Porvoo and the Time of Music Festival at Viitasaari. He has made arrangements of works especially for choir, including a set of traditional Japanese songs for the Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo.
As a pianist he was awarded first prize in the 9th Japan Chamber Music Competition in a duo with viola. As a performer, in addition to his work as a pianist, he is active as conductor of Ensemble Muromachi, which combines traditional Japanese instruments with early European instruments, and has directed the first performances of many contemporary works in this capacity.
On the basis of his long years of experience of solfège teaching and his hands-on experience of performance of contemporary music, Hiroaki Takaha continues to explore the potential of his own distinctive sound world.