Akira Nishimura

About the Composer

Akira Nishimura was born in Osaka in 1953. He studied composition and musical theory to the post graduate level at the Tokyo University of the Arts.  In 1977, Nishimura won the first of what would be numerous prizes at the Queen Elizabeth International Music Composition Competition with Heterophony for string quartet (1975) and the Luigi Dallapiccola Composition Award with Mutazioni (1977). In 1980, Kecak (1979) was selected as the best work at the International Rostrum of Composers, and Nishimura won awards at the ISCM World Music Days with ODE for Ekstasis (1981) in 1982, then in 1984, 1988 and 1990. The Otaka Prizes were awarded to him in 1988 for Heterophony for two pianos and orchestra (1987), in 1992 for A Ring of Lights, double concerto for violin, piano and orchestra, and in 1993 for Into the Lights of the Eternal Chaos. In 2001, he was awarded the ExxonMobil Music Prize and in 2004, the Suntory Music Award. Akira Nishimura was composer-in-residence of the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (1993-94) and of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (1994-97).

Nishimura principally employs heterophony, a characteristic device of Asian traditional music, subtly transforming the intervals, rhythm, and melody of his dense multi-layered textures. Though similar to 'micropolyphony' of Ligeti, an Asian perspective informs his technique. Some works are heterophonic melodically, such as Heterophony (1975), and some rhythmically, as in Kecak; the superimposition of trills, tremolos and harmonics contributes to the more complex textures of his later works.

Akira Nishimura has been commissioned by many overseas music festivals and ensembles such as ULTIMA Contemporary Music Festival Oslo, Octobre en Normandie, Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, ELISION Ensemble, Hannover Society of Contemporary Music, and so on.

Nishimura’s opera Asters, commissioned by the New National Theatre, Tokyo, was premiered in 2019 to great success.

Akira Nishimura was a Professor at the Tokyo College of Music and the Musical Director of the Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy & Festival until his death in September 2023.

To learn more about Akira Nishimura, visit zen-on.co.jp.

Selected Works

Mirror of Star for Piano, 1992

Jyurei I for Two Clarinets, 2014 

Halahala for Alto Saxophone, 2016 

Polar Lights for Trumpet and Piano, 2021

Kirtimukha for Euphonium and Marimba, 2022