OTAKA, Atsutada

Born in Tokyo, Atsutada Otaka studied in the Department of Composition at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, from where he graduated in 1966. His teachers included Tomojirō Ikenouchi, Akio Yashiro and Akira Miyoshi for composition and Kazuko Yasukawa for piano. He travelled to France on the French government’s scholarship programme in September 1966 and studied at the Paris Conservatoire, graduating in 1970. His teachers at the Conservatoire were Maurice Duruflé, Marcel Bitsch, Jean-Claude Henri and Henri Dutilleux. He received the 30th Otaka Prize for his 1982 orchestral work Image, the Bekku Prize for his 2001 work for organ and orchestra Fantasie, and the 60th Otaka Prize for his 2012 orchestral work Symphonie au-delà du Temps. He is Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University of the Arts.