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MAMIYA, Michio
間宮芳生(1929.6.29-2024.12.11)
Born in Asahikawa, Hokkaido in 1929. His father, a music teacher at a high school for girls, taught him to play the piano from an early age, and he began composing his first piece at the age of six. Moved to Aomori City at the age of 6, and moved to Tokyo after graduating from junior high school. In 1948, he entered the composition department of the Tokyo School of Music (now Tokyo University of the Arts) and graduated in 1952. His works are diverse, including orchestral works, chamber music, numerous solo piano pieces, choral works, operas, and works for various Japanese instruments. In 1974, he was commissioned by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) to compose an opera for television, "Narukami," based on "Narukami," one of the 18 Kabuki plays, with a text by himself. The opera was sung by a singer backed by an orchestra and performed by Bunraku puppets, and won the Salzburg Television Opera Prize and a gold medal. He has received numerous other national and international awards, including the Otaka Prize for his orchestral works. After graduating from the Tokyo School of Music, he studied folk songs from all over Japan. He was fascinated by the variety and diversity of the "Hayashi-kotoba" found in these folk songs, and composed many choral and solo pieces using these Hayashi-kotoba, especially the 17 "Compositions for Chorus" and 27 "Japanese Folk Songs for Solo Voice and Piano". In addition to his creative work, he was a lecturer in composition at Tokyo University of the Arts from 1972-90, a lecturer at Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1980, and a specially appointed professor at the same school from 2000-05. In 1977 and 1981, he was invited to the University of Western Ontario, Canada, as a visiting professor for two months each, where he taught composition, music theory, piano teaching, and orchestration. He was also invited as a theme composer to the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, and participated in many music festivals abroad, including those in Hungary, Bulgaria, the United States, and Russia. In addition, he was the first artistic director of the Shizuoka Music Hall AOI, which opened in 1995, and served for 10 years, during which time he planned and executed a diverse program of more than 200 programs featuring invited musicians from Japan and abroad.