Biography

Karen Tanaka was born in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 where she started piano and composition lessons as a child. After studying composition with Akira Miyoshi

Akira Miyoshi

Akira Miyoshi is a Japanese composer.Miyoshi was a child prodigy on piano, studying with Kozaburo Hirai and Tomojiro Ikenouchi. He studied French literature at the University of Tokyo, and then at the Paris Conservatory with Henri Challan and Raymond Gallois-Montbrun from 1955 to 1957. He was...

 and piano with Nobuko Amada at Toho Gakuen School of Music

Toho Gakuen School of Music

is a private conservatoire located in Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan.-History:Toho Gakuen was founded in 1948 in Kudan as a music school for children, and two years later opened the Toho High School of Music, to provide quality musical education to teenage girls. 1955 saw the establishment of the Junior...

 in Tokyo, she moved to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1986 with the aid of a French Government Scholarship to study with Tristan Murail

Tristan Murail

Tristan Murail is a French composer. His father, Gérard Murail, is a poet and his mother, Marie-Thérèse Barrois, a journalist. One of his brothers, Lorris Murail, and his younger sister Elvire Murail, aka Moka, also write, and his younger sister Marie-Aude Murail is a French children's writer...

 and work at IRCAM

IRCAM

IRCAM is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris...

 as an intern. In 1987, she was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize at the International Music Week in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. She studied with Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

 in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 in 1990-91 with funds from the Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...

 Foundation and a Japanese Government Scholarship. In 1998 she was appointed as Co-Artistic Director of the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Festival, previously directed by Toru Takemitsu

Toru Takemitsu

was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...

. In 2005 she was awarded the Bekku Prize.

Tanaka's love of nature and concern for the environment has influenced many of her works, including Questions of Nature, Frozen Horizon, Water and Stone, Dreamscape, Ocean, Tales of Trees, Water Dance, Crystalline series, and Children of Light. Her works have been performed by distinguished ensembles and orchestras worldwide, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...

, Los Angeles Philharmonic

Los Angeles Philharmonic

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...

, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra

NHK Symphony Orchestra

The in Tokyo, Japan began as the New Symphony Orchestra on October 5, 1926 and was the country's first professional symphony orchestra. Later, it changed its name to Japan Symphony Orchestra and in 1951, after receiving financial support from NHK, it took its current name...

 in Tokyo and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France is a French radio orchestra providing music for Radio France. It specializes in contemporary music and was founded in 1937.- Names of the orchestra :*Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France...

. Various dance companies, including the Nederlands Dans Theater, have also featured her music. She taught composition at the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, Santa Barbara, and the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

, Ann Arbor. Karen Tanaka currently lives in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 and teaches composition at California Institute of the Arts

California Institute of the Arts

The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...

.

Orchestral

• Anamorphose (1986), for piano & orchestra
• Departure (1999–2000)
• Echo Canyon (1995)
• Guardian Angel (2000), for clarinet, harp, percussion & string orchestra
• Hommage en cristal (1991), for piano & string orchestra
• Initium (1992–93), for orchestra & electronics
• Lost Sanctuary (2002)
• Prismes (1984)
• Rose Absolute (2002)
• Urban Prayer (2003–04), for cello & orchestra
• Wave Mechanics (1994)

Chamber

• Always in my heart (1999), for clarinet & piano
• At the grave of Beethoven (1999), for string quartet
• Dreamscape (2001), for 7 instruments
• Frozen Horizon (1998), for 7 instruments
• Holland Park Avenue Study (2002), for 5 instruments
• Invisible Curve (1996), for 5 instruments
• Metal Strings (1996), for string quartet
• Ocean (2003), for violin & piano
• Polarization (1994), for 2 percussionists
• Shibuya Tokyo (2009), for 2 violins
• Silent Ocean (2005), for trumpet & piano
• Water and Stone (1999), for 8 instruments

Piano / Harpsichord

• Children of Light (1998–99), for piano
• Crystalline (1988), for piano
• Crystalline II (1995–96) for piano
• Crystalline III (2000) for piano
• Herb Garden (2005) for piano four hands
• Jardin des herbes (1989, rev. 1995), for harpsichord
• Lavender (1989), for harpsichord
• Lavender Field (2000), for piano
• Northern Light (2002), for piano
• Our Planet Earth (2010-11), for piano
• Techno Etudes (2000), for piano
• Water Dance (2008), for piano
• The Zoo in the Sky (1994–95), for piano

Solo Instrumental

• Lilas (1988), for cello
• Metallic Crystal (1994–95), for metallic percussion & electronics
• Night Bird (1996), for alto saxophone & electronics
• The Song of Songs (1996), for cello & electronics
• Tales of Trees (2003), for marimba
• Wave Mechanics II (1994), for violin & electronics

Electroacoustic

• Celestial Harmonics (1997)
• Inuit Voices (1997)
• Questions of Nature (1998)

Choral

• God is Love as Love is God (2009)
• God Loves Us All (2009)
• Rise Up Hallelu (2009)
• Wait for the Lord (2009)

Sound Design

• Opening Bell for Daiichi Seimei Hall (2000)
• Viva Suntory! for Suntory Hall (2010)

Discography

• At the grave of Beethoven (Vanguard Classics - 992120), Brodsky Quartet
• Children of Light (BMG - BVCC 37200), Ikuyo Nakamichi, piano
• Crystalline (EVE0104), Eve Egoyan, piano
• Crystalline II (CRI - CD855), Xak Bjerken, piano
• Frozen Horizon (New World Records - 80683), Azure Ensemble
• Initium (Camerata - 32CM319), Tokyo Symphony Orchestra; Kazuyoshi Akiyama, conductor
• Invisible Curve (New World Records - 80683), Azure Ensemble
• Lavender Field (MET - CD 1053), Thalia Myers, piano
• Metallic Crystal (Mode 189-192), Roland Auzet, percussion
• Night Bird (BIS - CD890), Claude Delangle, alto saxophone
• Night Bird (First Hand Records - FHR13), Gerard McChrystal, alto saxophone
• Northern Light (USK - 1227 CDD), Thalia Myers, piano
• Prismes (BIS - CD490), Malmö Symphony Orchestra; Junichi Hirokami, conductor
• Silent Ocean (CRYSTON OVCC-00040), Osamu Kumashiro, trumpet; Kazumasa Watanabe, piano
• The Song of Songs (New Albion Records - NA 120), Joan Jeanrenaud, cello　
• The Song of Songs (Albany Records - TROY726), Medeleine Shapiro, cello　　　　　　　　
• Techno Etudes (BVHAAST - 1000), Tomoko Mukaiyama, piano
• Water and Stone (New World Records - 80683), Azure Ensemble
• Wave Mechanics (Deutsche Grammophon - POCG 1860), Ensemble Kanazawa
• The Zoo in the Sky (BMG - BVCC 1094), Ikuyo Nakamichi, piano

External links

• Karen Tanaka
• Frozen Horizon by Karen Tanaka