Kazuhito Yamashita
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese classical guitar
ist. His technique and expression are considered somewhat controversial.
In 1978, Yamashita made his debut in Japan and, in the following year, traveled to Europe. While still in his twenties, he made his first appearances in Canada's Toronto International Guitar Festival and gave a solo recital in the Musikverein (Grosser Saal) in Vienna, he also performed in the US and UK. He gave solo recitals in concert halls around the world such as the Lincoln Centre and has performed with a variety of orchestras and conductors in Europe, North America and Asia. In 1989, the Casals Hall in Tokyo, considered to be one of the finest auditoriums in the world, presented a series called The World of Kazuhito Yamashita, comprising seven concerts in 12 months. The high point of the concerts was Castelnuovo-Tedesco's 24 Caprichos de Goya in a single performance. The series concluded with Bach
's six sonatas and partitas over two consecutive nights; a recital series was continued in 1994 and 1999.
In addition to solo performances, Yamashita also plays duo, as well as with chamber music ensembles, orchestras and internationally acclaimed artists, such as Leonard Slatkin
with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
, Antoni Ros Marbà, Garcia Navaro, Pedro Halffter
, Hiroyuki Iwaki
, NHK Symphony Orchestra
, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
, Orquesta de la RTVE, Claudio Scimone e I Solisti Veneti, James Galway
(flute), Gary Karr
(double bass), Michala Petri
(recorder), The Tokyo String Quartet etc. In the 4th Santo Tirso International Guitar Festival, held in 1997, he played four guitar concertos in one night with the Cordoba orchestra, conducted by Leo Brouwer
. Most recently, he is active in the guitar quartet Kazuhito Yamashita & Bambini. This quartet, consisting of Yamashita and his children, has performed at two international festivals in Italy, the Seoul Art Center in Korea, Portugal, Cordoba Festival in Spain, San Francisco Herbst Theatre and several cities throughout Japan.
Yamashita has made almost 80 recordings and numerous original arrangements of such works as Mussorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Firebird, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scherezade and Dvořák
's Symphony of the New World. He has recorded for BMG
(RCA), Crown Classics, Japan Victor, King Records and Alfa Records
. His recordings include 16 CD's with the complete works of Fernando Sor
, and a collection of 5 CD's containing J.S. Bach
's sonatas and partitas for violin, cello, lute and flute (BWV 995-1013), all which he himself transcribed for the guitar. His recording of Mussorgsky
's Pictures at an Exhibition, released in 1981, was awarded the Deutsches Grammophon Award.
Yamashita is an enthusiastic proponent of new works for the guitar and has given the world premier of more than 60 new compositions. In this regard, his world premier and presentation of the works of the Japanese composer Keiko Fujiie
is notable. In 1999, he received the National Arts Festival Grand Prize from the Japanese Government's Agency for Cultural Affairs for his CD recording of Japanese Guitar Music 1923-1948.
Yamashita's early arrangements of Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, Dvořák
's New World Symphony no. 9 in E Minor, and others, broke boundaries in terms of solo guitar expression and virtuosity.
In 2004 "Kazuhito Yamashita＋bambini" was founded by Kazuhito, his two daughters and elder son, for the risorgimento of a quintessential and older musical tradition (This recalls a bygone era of both the East and the West when such music was known and valued and whose echoes can still be heard in the classic 11th century novel "The Tale of Genji") by performing original pieces written for them by Keiko Fujiie, based on her Oriental view of the world. In 2010, their younger son joined them and they were renamed "Kazuhito Yamashita Family Quintet". They have already appeared in three festivals in Italy, Cordoba festival in Spain in 2007 and 2011, has also performed in Portugal, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan and United States.
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...
ese classical guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
ist. His technique and expression are considered somewhat controversial.
Musical career
Yamashita began to study the guitar at the age of eight with his father, Toru Yamashita. In 1972, aged eleven, he won the Kyushu Guitar Competition. Four years later, he was awarded First Prize in the All Japan Guitar Competition. In 1977, he won three important international competitions - the Ramirez in Spain, the Alessandria in Italy and Paris Radio France Competition, being the youngest winner ever recorded.In 1978, Yamashita made his debut in Japan and, in the following year, traveled to Europe. While still in his twenties, he made his first appearances in Canada's Toronto International Guitar Festival and gave a solo recital in the Musikverein (Grosser Saal) in Vienna, he also performed in the US and UK. He gave solo recitals in concert halls around the world such as the Lincoln Centre and has performed with a variety of orchestras and conductors in Europe, North America and Asia. In 1989, the Casals Hall in Tokyo, considered to be one of the finest auditoriums in the world, presented a series called The World of Kazuhito Yamashita, comprising seven concerts in 12 months. The high point of the concerts was Castelnuovo-Tedesco's 24 Caprichos de Goya in a single performance. The series concluded with Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
's six sonatas and partitas over two consecutive nights; a recital series was continued in 1994 and 1999.
In addition to solo performances, Yamashita also plays duo, as well as with chamber music ensembles, orchestras and internationally acclaimed artists, such as Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Edward Slatkin is an American conductor and composer.-Early life and education:Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His father Felix Slatkin was the violinist, conductor and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet,...
with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos is a Spanish conductor and composer.Frühbeck studied violin, piano, and composition at the conservatories of Bilbao and Madrid...
, Antoni Ros Marbà, Garcia Navaro, Pedro Halffter
Pedro Halffter
Pedro Halffter Cato is a Spanish conductor. He is artistic director of the Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Teatro de la Maestranza and Music Director of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria in Las Palmas....
, Hiroyuki Iwaki
Hiroyuki Iwaki
was a Japanese conductor and percussionist.-Biography:Iwaki was born in Tokyo in 1932. Shortly after he entered an elementary school, he moved to Kyoto due to his father's transference. He came to play the xylophone at nine years old...
, 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...
, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is a 40-member American chamber orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, considered by music critic Jim Svejda as "America's finest chamber orchestra".-History:...
, Orquesta de la RTVE, Claudio Scimone e I Solisti Veneti, James Galway
James Galway
- External links : IMGArtists.com 15 September 2008. AllAboutJazz.com 5 August 2008.*...
(flute), Gary Karr
Gary Karr
Gary Karr b. November 20, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, is an American classical double bass virtuoso and teacher.- Biography :Although he comes from seven generations of bassists, he was not encouraged by them to go into music...
(double bass), Michala Petri
Michala Petri
Michala Petri is a Danish recorder player. Petri is sought after as a soloist with many noted orchestras, including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. She has released 34 recordings, toured extensively over four continents, and has had dozens of pieces written for her...
(recorder), The Tokyo String Quartet etc. In the 4th Santo Tirso International Guitar Festival, held in 1997, he played four guitar concertos in one night with the Cordoba orchestra, conducted by Leo Brouwer
Leo Brouwer
Juan Leovigildo Brouwer Mezquida is a Cuban composer, conductor and guitarist. He is the grandson of Cuban composer Ernestina Lecuona Casado.-Biography:...
. Most recently, he is active in the guitar quartet Kazuhito Yamashita & Bambini. This quartet, consisting of Yamashita and his children, has performed at two international festivals in Italy, the Seoul Art Center in Korea, Portugal, Cordoba Festival in Spain, San Francisco Herbst Theatre and several cities throughout Japan.
Yamashita has made almost 80 recordings and numerous original arrangements of such works as Mussorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Firebird, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scherezade and Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
's Symphony of the New World. He has recorded for BMG
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
(RCA), Crown Classics, Japan Victor, King Records and Alfa Records
Alfa Records
, originally Alfa Music, was established in 1969 by composer and record producer Kunihiko Murai. It was formed into an independent record label known as Alfa Records in 1977.- History :The company faced much hardship in the 1990s...
. His recordings include 16 CD's with the complete works of Fernando Sor
Fernando Sor
Josep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer. While he is best known for his guitar compositions, he also composed music for a wide range of genres, including opera, orchestra, string quartet, piano, voice and ballet...
, and a collection of 5 CD's containing J.S. Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
's sonatas and partitas for violin, cello, lute and flute (BWV 995-1013), all which he himself transcribed for the guitar. His recording of Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...
's Pictures at an Exhibition, released in 1981, was awarded the Deutsches Grammophon Award.
Yamashita is an enthusiastic proponent of new works for the guitar and has given the world premier of more than 60 new compositions. In this regard, his world premier and presentation of the works of the Japanese composer Keiko Fujiie
Keiko Fujiie
Keiko Fujiie is a Japanese composer born in Kyoto, Japan. She is the daughter of a professor of mathematics in the University of Kyoto and completed postgraduate studies at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Fujiie won the Otaka Prize in 1995 and in 2000 for best symphonic piece of...
is notable. In 1999, he received the National Arts Festival Grand Prize from the Japanese Government's Agency for Cultural Affairs for his CD recording of Japanese Guitar Music 1923-1948.
Yamashita's early arrangements of Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
's New World Symphony no. 9 in E Minor, and others, broke boundaries in terms of solo guitar expression and virtuosity.
In 2004 "Kazuhito Yamashita＋bambini" was founded by Kazuhito, his two daughters and elder son, for the risorgimento of a quintessential and older musical tradition (This recalls a bygone era of both the East and the West when such music was known and valued and whose echoes can still be heard in the classic 11th century novel "The Tale of Genji") by performing original pieces written for them by Keiko Fujiie, based on her Oriental view of the world. In 2010, their younger son joined them and they were renamed "Kazuhito Yamashita Family Quintet". They have already appeared in three festivals in Italy, Cordoba festival in Spain in 2007 and 2011, has also performed in Portugal, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan and United States.
External links
- Kazuhito Yamashita Art Circle (includes biography)
- Kazuhito Yamashita + bambini
- Kazuhito Yamashita recordings
- Yamashita profile at Bach Canatas (Segments of this Wiki entry have been kindly provided, with permission, by Aryeh Oron, CEO of Bach Canatas)
Articles
Interviews
- Interview mit Kazuhito Yamashita 1985 - by Tadashi SasakiTadashi SasakiTadashi Sasaki is a classical guitarist born in Tokyo, Japan. Today he lives in Germany, where he is a professor at in Aachen.In 1968, Tadashi Sasaki was the first Japanese to win the international guitar competition in Paris. He served as a juror in the Heinsberg International Guitar Festival and...
(German version by Thomas Müller-PeringThomas Müller-PeringThomas Müller-Pering is a classical guitarist from Germany. He studied under Prof. Tadashi Sasaki at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and performed in the master classes of John Williams, José Tomás, Oscar Ghiglia and Siegfried Behrend. In 1983 he was awarded 1st Prize in the "Concurso internacional...
)
