born May 21, 1971, in Miyazaki

Miyazaki, Miyazaki

is the capital city of Miyazaki Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. Located on the coast and perforated by several rivers, Miyazaki City enjoys scenic views of both ocean and nearby, verdant mountains...

, 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...

, is a Japanese countertenor

Countertenor

A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...

. His range is three and a half octave

Octave

In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...

s.

Originally wanting to become a pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 singer, Mela now primarily sings classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 from the West but also classical Japanese music. He appears frequently a soloist with the Bach Collegium Japan

Bach Collegium Japan

Bach Collegium Japan is composed of an orchestra and a chorus specialising in Baroque music, playing with period instruments. It was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki with the purpose of introducing Japanese audiences to European Baroque music. Suzuki still remains its music director...

, which under its conductor Masaaki Suzuki

Masaaki Suzuki

is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan.He was born in Kobe to parents who were both Christians and amateur musicians...

 performs Baroque music

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

.

It was revealed in a television documentary entitled "米良美一の實話" ("Yoshikazu Mela's true story") that he was born with congenital osteogenesis imperfecta

Osteogenesis imperfecta

Osteogenesis imperfecta is a genetic bone disorder. People with OI are born with defective connective tissue, or without the ability to make it, usually because of a deficiency of Type-I collagen...

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Selected discography

• Nightingale - Japanese Art Songs
• Baroque Arias
• Baroque Arias, vol. 2
• The Best of Yoshikazu Mela
• Princess Mononoke: Music from the Motion Picture
  Princess Mononoke: Music from the Motion Picture
  Princess Mononoke: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to Hayao Miyazaki's 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. The music was composed and performed by Joe Hisaishi, the soundtrack composer for nearly all Miyazaki's productions, and Miyazaki wrote the lyrics of the two vocal tracks, The Tatara...
  
  (1997)
• Songs for Counter-Tenor and Orchestra
• Mela sings Bach

External links

• Official website