Tokyo Summer Festival
Encyclopedia
The annual Tokyo Summer Festival, organized by the Arion-Edo Foundation
in cooperation with Asahi Shimbun
, has been thought up in 1985 by Kyoko Edo
(pianist), Maki Ishii
(composer) and Tashi Funayama (musicologist), who joined hands to plan a truly international music festival in Tokyo
at a time when there was no such event in Japan
. This epoch-making festival is the first in Japan planned and directed by professional musicians. The festival takes place under a different theme each year and invites outstanding artists from all around the world in order to let the public discover various styles of music, from classical to world music. Many of the participating artists perform for the 1st time in Japan.
1986: Pan-nationalist Music - Focusing on Russian/Soviet Music
1987: Creation and Performance- Beyond Ethnicity Focusing on the Music of the U.S.A.
1988: Paris - Paris
1989: German Romanticism - Development and Countermovement - Dawn for Berlin
1990: The Gypsies and European Music
1991: Sound Across the Continents and Oceans - Music from Abroad and the Culture of Japan
1992: Italy - well-spring of voice and sound -
1993: Visions of India
1994: Transformation and New Perspectives
1995: Patterns of Laughter - Masques, Music, and Buffoonery -
1996: The Harmony of the Spheres I: The Woman Ascending
1997: The Harmony of the Spheres II: Myths and Legends
1998: The Ballets Russes of Diaghilev and the Twentieth Century - Provocateur in Arts -
1999: Performance: Art and Artistry
2000: Camera! Action! Music! (Music and Cinema)
2001: Voices
2002: Music and Literature
2003: Ritual, Nature, and Music
2004: The 20th Anniversary of the Tokyo Summer Festival
2005: Cosmos, Music, and Heart
2006: Songs of the Earth / Music in the Streets
2007: Towards the Islands - Sounds across the Sea
2008: Forest Echoes / Desert Voices
Forest – filled with vitality, spirits and shrubs since all times, graceful spots unreachable by daylight, a habitat for humans and spirits. Obscure and mysterious places in the midst of forests are an abundant source of energetic sounds.
Desert – although life withers on the arid soil, great civilizations have made the desert their home for thousands of years. The silence of the desert sharpens mind and ears of its inhabitants and creates strong and colorful music.
At a first glance deserts and forests are completely opposite places, but on a global scale they are closely linked by the hydrologic cycle.
This year’s Tokyo Summer Festival takes you to a musical journey through noisy forests and silent deserts.
Performers: Egberto Gismonti
, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
, Ryusuke Numajiri, Algerian Tuareg musicians, Karaja Indians, Toshita Kagura Preservation Association, Shota Nakano, Fumiko Nomura,...
Since ancient times, islands floating all over the world’s oceans and seas have been the passage route for traders, explorers and travelers. With the coming and going of the peoples, traces of different cultures also passed by the islands that became an encounter place where native and overseas cultures blend together.
This year’s 23rd Tokyo Summer Festival is rowing through space and time to portray the musical mosaic of various islands from around the globe.
Musicians performing at the 23rd Tokyo Summer Festival:
Dan Ettinger, Shota Nakano, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
, Johann Johannsson
, Fujiko Nakaya
, La Troupe Makandal, Music Cultural Club, Bi Kidude
, Vicente Feliu, Lazaro Garcia, Augusto Blanca, and many more!
Arion-Edo Foundation
■ EstablishmentSeptember 1985■ Mission1. Award and support young promising musicians2. Organize and sponsor music festival3. Organize and sponsor concerts and lectures regarding music4. Hold cultural exchange with other countries5...
in cooperation with Asahi Shimbun
Asahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
, has been thought up in 1985 by Kyoko Edo
Kyoko Edo
Kyoko Edo is a pianist, artistic director, and president of the Arion-Edo Foundation.After graduating from the Conservatoire N.S.M.P., she performed with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, the Radio France Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, etc. and so on as soloist.She founded the...
(pianist), Maki Ishii
Maki Ishii
was a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music, and brother of composer Kan Ishii.-Biography:Born in Tokyo, Ishii studied composition privately and conducting with Watanabe from 1952 to 1958 in Tokyo, then moved to Berlin, where he continued his studies under Boris Blacher and Josef Rufer...
(composer) and Tashi Funayama (musicologist), who joined hands to plan a truly international music festival 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...
at a time when there was no such event in 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...
. This epoch-making festival is the first in Japan planned and directed by professional musicians. The festival takes place under a different theme each year and invites outstanding artists from all around the world in order to let the public discover various styles of music, from classical to world music. Many of the participating artists perform for the 1st time in Japan.
Festivals in the past
1985: Music, Exoticism and Orientalism - The Maturity and Transformation of Occidental Music-1986: Pan-nationalist Music - Focusing on Russian/Soviet Music
1987: Creation and Performance- Beyond Ethnicity Focusing on the Music of the U.S.A.
1988: Paris - Paris
1989: German Romanticism - Development and Countermovement - Dawn for Berlin
1990: The Gypsies and European Music
1991: Sound Across the Continents and Oceans - Music from Abroad and the Culture of Japan
1992: Italy - well-spring of voice and sound -
1993: Visions of India
1994: Transformation and New Perspectives
1995: Patterns of Laughter - Masques, Music, and Buffoonery -
1996: The Harmony of the Spheres I: The Woman Ascending
1997: The Harmony of the Spheres II: Myths and Legends
1998: The Ballets Russes of Diaghilev and the Twentieth Century - Provocateur in Arts -
1999: Performance: Art and Artistry
2000: Camera! Action! Music! (Music and Cinema)
2001: Voices
2002: Music and Literature
2003: Ritual, Nature, and Music
2004: The 20th Anniversary of the Tokyo Summer Festival
2005: Cosmos, Music, and Heart
2006: Songs of the Earth / Music in the Streets
2007: Towards the Islands - Sounds across the Sea
2008: Forest Echoes / Desert Voices
24th Tokyo Summer Festival 2008: Forest Echoes / Desert Voices
「森の響き・砂漠の声」Forest – filled with vitality, spirits and shrubs since all times, graceful spots unreachable by daylight, a habitat for humans and spirits. Obscure and mysterious places in the midst of forests are an abundant source of energetic sounds.
Desert – although life withers on the arid soil, great civilizations have made the desert their home for thousands of years. The silence of the desert sharpens mind and ears of its inhabitants and creates strong and colorful music.
At a first glance deserts and forests are completely opposite places, but on a global scale they are closely linked by the hydrologic cycle.
This year’s Tokyo Summer Festival takes you to a musical journey through noisy forests and silent deserts.
Performers: Egberto Gismonti
Egberto Gismonti
Egberto Gismonti Amin is a Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist.Gismonti began his formal music studies at the age of six on piano. After studying classical music for 15 years, he went to Paris to study orchestration and analysis with Nadia Boulanger and the composer Jean Barraqué, a disciple...
, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
The claims to be the oldest classical orchestra in Japan, having been founded in Nagoya in 1911. It moved to Tokyo in 1938 and has some 166 members as of 2005....
, Ryusuke Numajiri, Algerian Tuareg musicians, Karaja Indians, Toshita Kagura Preservation Association, Shota Nakano, Fumiko Nomura,...
23rd Tokyo Summer Festival 2007: Towards the Islands - Sounds across the Sea
「島へ - 海を渡る音」Since ancient times, islands floating all over the world’s oceans and seas have been the passage route for traders, explorers and travelers. With the coming and going of the peoples, traces of different cultures also passed by the islands that became an encounter place where native and overseas cultures blend together.
This year’s 23rd Tokyo Summer Festival is rowing through space and time to portray the musical mosaic of various islands from around the globe.
Musicians performing at the 23rd Tokyo Summer Festival:
Dan Ettinger, Shota Nakano, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
The claims to be the oldest classical orchestra in Japan, having been founded in Nagoya in 1911. It moved to Tokyo in 1938 and has some 166 members as of 2005....
, Johann Johannsson
Jóhann Jóhannsson
Jóhann Jóhannsson is an Icelandic musician, composer and producer. He is a co-founder of Kitchen Motors in Reykjavík, the art organization/think tank/record label which specializes in initiating collaborations, promoting concerts and exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films,...
, Fujiko Nakaya
Fujiko Nakaya
is a Japanese artist, most noted for her fog sculptures.-Early life:Nakaya was born in Sapporo in 1933, where her father Ukichiro Nakaya, who is credited with making the first artificial snowflakes, was at the time an assistant professor at Hokkaido University...
, La Troupe Makandal, Music Cultural Club, Bi Kidude
Bi Kidude
Fatuma binti Baraka is a Zanzibari Taarab singer. She is considered the undisputed queen of Taarab and Unyago music and is also a protégé of Siti binti Saad. Bi Kidude was born in the village of Mfagimaringo, she was the daughter of a coconut seller in colonial Zanzibar...
, Vicente Feliu, Lazaro Garcia, Augusto Blanca, and many more!