Takehito Shimazu

Takehito Shimazu

Composer

Takehito Shimazu was born in 1949 in Shimoda in the province of Shizuoka (Japan). He graduated in composition at the University of Tokyo-Gakugei and obtained his Masters degree in composition and conducting from the same university under the direction of professors S. Kai and S. Sumitani. From 1977 to 1981, he pursued his education as a composer in the Berlin Art School with Isang Yun. A that same time, he studied electronic and computer music composition at the Technical University of Berlin.

His music has been played in many concert series: Stimmen, Inventionnen in Berlin between 1978 and 1981; at the summer seminar of new music in Darmstadt in 1980; the festival of experimental music in Bourges (France) in 1980 and 1981; the Festival of the Asian League in Hong Kong in 1981; the World Days of the ISCM in Graz (Austria) in 1982, Hong Kong in 1988 and Oslo (Norway) in 1990 with a commission and in Mexico in 1993. His music was also played in the Asian Music Days of the ISCM in Seoul in 1986 and in Tokyo in 1988, as well as during the celebrations of Art in Tokyo in 1985. He participated at the International Computer Music Conferences of Köln in 1988, Tokyo in 1993 and Hong Kong in 1996. He attended numerous seminars, including those at IRCAM in Paris (1989), and was composer in residence at the Ateliers Upic in 1990 and 1994. He has written music for the International Dance Festival of Tokyo at Theatre X in 1996, 1998 and 2000.

His works are published by Deutscher Musik Verlag and also by Breitkopf and Härtel and have been recorded by Editions RZ and Hat Hut. He organized several concert series, including “Machinery Improvisation” (1988/ 89) and “Sound Electro-Media” in 1995.

Shimazu has received many prizes, including: Jürgen-Ponto composition contest of Germany (1979), International Wienawski Competition in Poland (1980), the Hombach Prize in Germany (1985), the Prize of the Japanese Ministry of Culture in 1988 and the 23rd Prize of International Electroacoustic Music.

He currently teaches at the University of Fukushima in Japan and is a member of the Japanese Section of the ISCM and of the Japanese Federation of Composers (JFC). He was the music committee chairman of the ICMC in Tokyo in 1993.