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TANAKA Karen (1961)

Date of creation:

May 2010

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A Japanese composer born April 7, 1961 in Tokyo.
A pianist by training, Karen Tanaka began studying composition at the age of ten. In 1982 she entered the musical school Toho Gakuen, trained with Akira Miyoshi and notably won the Japan Symphony Foundation Award. She completed her training formation in Paris with Tristan Murail (1986), then in Florence with Luciano Berio (1990-1991). She subsequently took part in the composition and computer music course at Ircam (1991-1992). Karen Tanaka composes mainly for instrumental formations, from soloist to the orchestra, and also employs electro-acoustic techniques. She has taught in the USA (Universities of California, Santa Barbara and Michigan) and has co-directed the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Festival. Her works include Anamorphose (Prix Gaudeamus 1987), Initum for orchestra and electronic instruments (1993), Invisible Curve (1996), Water and Stone (1999, first performed at Radio France) and Urban Prayer for cello and orchestra (2004, premiered at the University of Berkeley).

Biography

Karen Tanaka was born in 1961 in Japan. She began to study the piano at the age of four and composition at the age of ten. After studying French literature at Aoyama Gakuin University, she entered the music school Toho Gakuen in 1982, where she followed the composition classes of Akira Miyoshi. During the four years she spent in this establishment, she won several prizes in Japan and in Europe, notably at the Viotti and Trieste competitions, as well as the Japan Symphony Foundation Award.

In 1986 she obtained a bursary from the French government, settled in Paris, studied composition with Tristan Murail and worked as a trainee at Ircam. The following year she won the Gaudeamus Prize during the AmsterdamInternational Music Week for her piano concerto Anamorphose. In 1988 she was awarded the Muramatsu Prize. In 1990-91 she studied with Luciano Berio in Florence with the support of the International Nadia and Lili Boulanger Foundation and a study grant from the Japanese government. She then wrote Hommage en cristal, a work for piano and string orchestra, a commission from the Ultima Festival in Oslo for the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. In 1991-92 she followed the composition and computer music course at Ircam, where she experimented and realised the first version of Metallic Crystal.

Many commissions from Japan then followed, including Initium (1993), Wave Mechanics (1994) and Echo Canyon (1995). Karen Tanaka received the Saji Prize (1995) and became co-artistic director of the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Festival, previously directed by Toru Takemitsu. She taught in the USA, at the Universities of California, Santa Barbara and Michigan. Her works are played in Japan, the United States and in Europe. In 2000 she was one of the featured composers at the Encounters Festival in Toronto and was also composer in residence at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival in Australia.

The music of Karen Tanaka is a synthesis of the influences of East and West. Her works are imbued with a feeling of timelessness that is to be found in the æsthetics of Zen Buddhism, as well as notions of ‘elongated time’ and ‘deformed space’ that are also present in Japanese Nô theatre. Scientific theories also interest the composer. For example, Invisible Curve (1996, revised in 1999) for flute, violin, viola, cello and piano was inspired by the theory of general relativity. Karen Tanaka also adopts elements of spectral thinking as transmitted by Tristan Murail. The instruments she uses are subtly amplified in order to add a slight reverberation, to enlarge and deform the instrumental tone-colours and the sound space.

Karen Tanaka also shares, in her compositions, her love of nature and her anxiety for the environment. Thus, Water and Stone (1999) enable one to linger in the silence of her garden, where she offers different reflections of the light when water runs over coloured stones. Karen Tanaka’s description alludes to impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, an amateur of Japanese prints, who attempted to fix on canvas the continual evolution of the play of light in his garden in Giverny. Similarly, in her music, the musical elements are introduced by one instrument and then shared with or transmitted to another, thus constantly changing the tone-colour.

Her works further include Questions of Nature for tape (1998), Departure for orchestra (2000, premiered in London by the BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Urban Prayer for cello and orchestra (2004, first performed at the University of Berkeley).

Works

Les partitions de Karen Tanaka sont éditées par Chester.

1984
Prismes pour orchestre
10 min
Création : 16/10/1984 – Orchestre philharmonique de Tokyo, direction Hikotaro Yazaki. Japon, Tokyo

1986
Anamorphose pour piano et orchestre
13 min
Création : 13/09/1987 – Maarten Bon, Orchestre de chambre de la radio des Pays-Bas, direction Ernest Bour. Pays-Bas, Hilversum, Gaudeamus Muziekweek

1988
Crystalline pour piano
7 min
Création : 10/09/1988 – Tomoko Yazawa. Japon, Tokyo

Lilas pour violoncelle
7 min
Création : 10/09/1988 – Frances-Marie Uitti. Pays-Bas, Amsterdam, Gaudeamus Muziekweek

1989
Jardin des herbes pour clavecin
Rosemary – Sweet violet – Lavender
8 min
Création : 03/03/1989 – Akiko Kuwagata. Japon, Tokyo

1991
Hommage en cristal pour piano et orchestre à cordes
9 min
Création : 22/10/1991 – Hakon Austbø, Orchestre de chambre de Norvège, direction Beat Furrer. Norvège, Oslo

1993
Initium pour orchestre et instruments électroniques
13 min
Création : 23/06/1993 – Orchestre symphonique de Tokyo, direction Kazuyoshi Akiyama. Japon, Tokyo

1994
Polarization pour 2 percussions
12 min
Création : 11/02/1995 – Gaston Sylvestre, Willy Coquillat. France, Paris, Maison de Radio France, festival Présences

Wave Mechanics pour ensemble instrumental
10 min
Création : 23/08/1994 – Ensemble orchestral Kanazawa, direction Hiroyuki Iwaki. Japon, Kanazawa

Wave Mechanics II pour violon et électroacoustique
8 min
Création : 26/11/1994 – Masayuki Kino. Japon, Kobe

1995
Echo Canyon pour ensemble instrumental
9 min
Création : 26/11/1995 – Orchestre de chambre de la radio télévision japonaise (NHK), direction Takashi Nagamine. Japon, Nagoya
Metallic Crystal pour percussion, ordinateur et électronique en direct
9 min 20 s
Création version originale : 06/02/1993 – Jean-Guillaume Cattin. France, Paris, Ircam
Création version révisée : 26/06/1995 – Roland Auzet. France, Paris, Ircam

The Zoo in the Sky, piano book for children
30 min
Création : 26/06/1995 – Ikuyo Nakamichi

1996
Crystalline II pour piano
6 min 30 s
Création : 19/01/1996 – Kazuoki Fujii. Japon, Yokohama

Invisible Curve pour flûte, violon, alto, violoncelle et piano
9 min
Création : 30/06/1996 – Shigenori Kudo, Blagoya Demcevski, François Schmitt, Jean-Marie Trotereau, Jeffrey Grice. Japon, Yokohama

Metal Strings pour quatuor à cordes
7 min 30 s
Création : 27/11/1996 – New arts string quartet. Japon, Tokyo

Night Bird pour saxophone alto et électroacoustique
8 min 15 s
Création : 28/06/1997 – Claude Delangle. Suède, Stockholm
The Song of Songs pour violoncelle et électroacoustique
8 min 10 s
Création : 10/11/1996 – Ryoichi Fujimori. Japon, Mito

1997
Inuit Voices pour bande
5 min 40 s
Création : 30/11/1999. Allemagne, Brême

1998
Frozen Horizon pour ensemble instrumental
9 min
Création : 22/05/1998 – Ensemble Bit 20, direction Ingar Bergby. Norvège, Bergen, Håkonshallen, Bergen Festival

Questions of Nature pour bande
Forest – Air – Ocean – Light – Earth
10 min
Création : 01/01/1999. France, Paris, Maison de Radio France, France Musique, "Alla breve"

1999
Always in my heart pour clarinette et piano
Letter to you – Tears in the rain – Always in my heart
9 min
Création : 26/10/1999 – Yuji Murai, Takehiko Yamada. Japon, Tokyo

At the grave of Beethoven pour quatuor à cordes
9 min
Création : 08/03/2000 – Brodsky Quartet. Royaume-Uni, Londres, Cabot Hall, Canary Wharf

Children of Light, piano book for children
40 min

Water and Stone pour ensemble instrumental
9 min
Création : 04/03/2000 – Ensemble Tm+, direction Laurent Cuniot. France, Paris, Maison de Radio France

2000
Crystalline III pour piano
7 min
Création : 09/05/2000 – Eve Egoyan. Canada, Toronto, CBC, Glenn Gould studio

Departure pour orchestre
8 min
Création : 08/12/2000 – Orchestre symphonique de la BBC, direction Kazushi Ono. Royaume-Uni, Londres
Guardian Angel pour orchestre
11 min
Création : 09/11/2000 – Orchestre philharmonique de Brooklyn, direction Paul Lustig Dunkel. États-Unis, New York, Carnegie Hall
Lavender Field pour piano, musique pédagogique
1 min 30s

Techno Études, 3 pièces pour piano
9 min
Création : 26/03/2000 – Tomoko Mukaiyama. Pays-Bas, Venlo

2001
Dreamscape pour violon, harpe et orchestre à cordes
15 min
Création : 03/02/2002 – Jean Leber, Francette Bartholomée, ensemble Musiques nouvelles, direction Jean-Paul Dessy. Belgique, Bruxelles, Chapelle des Brigittines

2002
Holland Park Avenue Study pour 2 violons, 2 altos et violoncelle
3 min
Création : 26/10/2002 – Ensemble COMA. Royaume-Uni, Liverpool, Tate Liverpool Gallery

Lost Sanctuary pour orchestre
15 min
Création : 18/07/2002 – Orchestre symphonique de la radio télévision japonaise (NHK), direction Tadaaki Otaka. Japon, Tokyo, Sumida triphony hall

Northern Lights pour piano, musique pédagogique
2 min

Rose Absolute pour orchestre
11 min
Création : 01/12/2002 – Orchestre symphonique de la radio télévision japonaise (NHK), direction Esa-Pekka Salonen. Japon, Tokyo, Suntory hall

2003
Tales of Tree pour marimba
10 min
Création : 30/03/2003 – Pedro Carneiro. Portugal, Lisbonne

Ocean pour violon et piano
East Beach – Hendrey's Beach - Sunset – Butterfly Beach
11 min
Création : 19/09/2003 – Annar Folles, Helge Kjekshus. Norvège, Bergen, Bergen Festival

2004
Urban Prayer pour violoncelle et orchestre
25 min
Création : 16/03/2004 – Joan Jeanrenaud, Orchestre symphonique de Berkeley, direction Kent Nagano. États-Unis, Université de Berkeley-Californie, Zellerbach Hall

2005
Herb Garden pour piano 4 mains, musique pédagogique
40 min

Silent Ocean pour trompette et piano
14 min
Création : 16/05/2005 – Osamu Kumashiro, Kazumasa Watanabe. Japon, Tokyo

2006
Dancing Llama, musique de film
12 min
Création : 02/02/2007. États-Unis, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Kokoyakyu : High School Baseball, musique de film
1 h
Diffusion télévisée : 08/07/2006. États-Unis, PBS

2007
Of Time and the Spirit, musique de film
12 min
Création : 25/01/2008. États-Unis, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara International Film Festival

2008
Water Dance pour piano
11 min
Création : Signe Bakke

2009
God is Love as Love is God pour choeur
3 min
Création : 12/04/2009 – St. Michael and all Angels Church Choir. États-Unis, Santa Barbara

God Love Us All pour choeur
2 min
Création : 10/05/2009 – St. Michael and all Angels Church Choir. États-Unis, Santa Barbara

My Soul Magnifies the Lord pour choeur
4 min
Création : 01/11/2009 – St. Michael and all Angels Church Choir. États-Unis, Santa Barbara

Rise Up Hallelu pour choeur
4 min
Création : 12/04/2009 – St. Michael and all Angels Church Choir. États-Unis, Santa Barbara

Shibuya Tokyo pour 2 violons
3 min
Création : 05/12/2009 – Sveinung Lillebjerka, Jutta Morgenstern. Norvège, Bergen

The Ashes of the Lord pour choeur
3 min
Création : 01/03/2009 – St. Michael and all Angels Church Choir. États-Unis, Santa Barbara

Wait for the Lord pour choeur
3 min
Création : 08/03/2009 – St. Michael and all Angels Church Choir. États-Unis, Santa Barbara

2010
You're My Ghoul, musique de film
8 min
Création : 05/06/2010. États-Unis, Californie, Festival of New Creative Work at UCLA

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TANAKA Karen (1961)

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TANAKA Karen (1961)

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© MMC 2021