Zen-On Presents its 25th Annual Contemporary Concert in Tokyo
Dec. 01, 2018
On December 14, Zen-On presents the world premieres of five new works for solo or duo at their 25th annual contemporary music concert “Groupe des Quatre et ses ami(e)s” (The Group of Four and their friends) at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Hall. This concert series features Zen-On's living composers, Shin-ichiro Ikebe, Tokuhide Niimi, Akira Nishimura, Hitomi Kaneko, and several others, and serves to highlight the full range of Zen-On's new music activities throughout the year. Since 1994, Zen-On has produced and organized this series single-handedly, without support from third parties. A cumulative total of 150 composers and 250 performers have taken part in the series since 1994, and 143 works have received world premieres (including the new works on this year's concert). All of the pieces on the series were commissioned by Zen-On and published following their respective premieres. Notably, NHK-FM (the Japan Broadcasting Corporation – Japan's national public broadcasting organization) broadcasts these concerts every year.
The theme of this year's concert is: "À la recherche de l’avenir, au-delà du passé et du présent" (Looking to the future, beyond the past and present), and the program includes world premieres of Shin-ichiro Ikebe's Bivalence XIV, for two horns performed by Nobuaki Fukukawa and Tatsuo Nippashi, Tokuhide Niimi's Etudes for Piano -questions to gods- Book 4 X, XI, XII, performed by Rikuya Terashima, Akira Nishimura's Jyurei III, for two bass clarinets played by Haruyo Nishizawa and Asami Kawagoe, Hitomi Kaneko's A Dance of Molecules -Composition by 3D modeling, for viola solo, performed by Ryo Sasaki, and Ichiro Nodaira's Violin, Viola, performed by violinist Hiroaki Matsuno and violist Tomomi Shinozaki.
Listen to Ichiro Nodaira's Pas de résonance (1999-2000) for solo piano here:
(Pas de résonance/Ichiro Nodaira/Hiroaki Takenouchi, piano)
To learn more about these composers, visit: zen-on.jp.co.
Shin-ichiro Ikebe
Bivalence XIV
for two horns
Hitomi Kaneko
A Dance of Molecules -Composition by 3D modeling
for viola solo
Tokuhide Niimi
Etudes for Piano -questions to gods- Book 4 X, XI, XII
Akira Nishimura
Jyurei III
for two Bass-Clarinets
Ichiro Nodaira
Violin, Viola