Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital and most populous prefecture of Japan. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central Pacific coast of Japan's main island, Honshu. Tokyo is the political and economic center of the country, as well as the seat of the Emperor and the national government. The Greater Tokyo Area is the largest urban economy and the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37.4 million residents as of 2018.
The music of Japan includes a wide array of performers in distinct styles, both traditional and modern. The word for "music" in Japanese is 音楽 (ongaku), combining the kanji 音 on (sound) with the kanji 楽 gaku (enjoy). Japan is the largest physical music market in the world, worth US$2 billion in sales in physical formats in 2014, and the second-largest overall music market, worth a total retail value of 2.6 billion dollars in 2014 – dominated by Japanese artists, with 37 of the top 50 best-selling albums and 49 of the top 50 best-selling singles in 2014.
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of Western and Eastern classical music. He was the music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and is Conductor Emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Seiji Ozawa is a Japanese conductor known for his advocacy of modern composers and for his work with the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra whom he served as music director for 29 years. He is the recipient of numerous international awards.
Kaija Anneli Saariaho is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France.
Serenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams for 16 vocal soloists and orchestra, composed in 1938. The text is an adaptation of the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams later arranged the piece into versions for chorus and orchestra and for solo violin and orchestra. It is approximately 13 minutes in duration.
Georges Lentz is a contemporary composer and sound artist, born in Luxembourg in 1965, and is that country's internationally best-known composer. Since 1990, he has been living in Sydney, Australia. Despite his relatively small output and his reclusiveness, he is also considered one of Australia's leading composers. He spends part of each year at his secondary residence in Berlin.
Yip Wing-sie is a Hong Kong musician.
Michiru Ōshima is a Japanese composer who works on music in wide range of areas such as movies, anime films, television series, video games and concerts. She has written scores for more than 100 movies, over 200 television titles, video games, various types of events, concerts, theaters, among others. Ōshima is one of the most prolific living composers for film, anime and video game. She has released over 300 CDs including film soundtracks and artist CDs. Her works include composition for Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, and "Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." movies and scores for numerous anime television series, including Fullmetal Alchemist, Nabari no Ou, Queen Emeraldas, Xam'd: Lost Memories, Arc the Lad, and Weathering Continent. In addition to the soundtracks on Kaiju films and anime music, she has composed music for several video games such as Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf for Super NES, Ico for PlayStation 2, Legend of Legaia for the PlayStation and its PlayStation 2 sequel Legaia 2: Duel Saga, Arc the Lad III, Deemo, and an orchestral arrangement of a Zelda medley for the Wii and Nintendo GameCube game The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. She was also the composer for a Japanese stage musical adaptation of the classic Hollywood film Roman Holiday. Her latest work includes the composition of several music tracks for the highly acclaimed Chinese espionage thriller film The Message and a 2017 Chinese mystery thriller film "The Devotion of Suspect X (film)".
The Philharmonic Winds is a Singaporean wind orchestra. The orchestra was formed in 2000 with Robert Casteels as Music Director and currently has more than 70 dedicated members. It is currently under the artistic leadership of Music Director Leonard Tan.
Nobuko Imai, is a Japanese classical violist with an extensive career as soloist and chamber musician. Since 1988 she has played a 1690 Andrea Guarneri instrument.
Ural Philharmonic Orchestra is a professional symphony orchestra based in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The Ural Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1936 by the Russian conductor Mark Paverman as the Orchestra of the Sverdlovsk Radio. The most prominent musicians of the Soviet Union – conductors, soloists and composers – worked with the Orchestra. However, due to the special status of the 'closed city' of Sverdlovsk it was 'hidden' from the rest of the world until 1991 when the city was 'opened', and the Orchestra's professional level quickly became known abroad.
Atsuko Seta is a Japanese classical pianist. She is particularly successful in Poland, especially in the southwest of the country, regularly performing with the Sudeten Philharmonic Orchestra in Walbrzych and in her native Japan and in Bulgaria. Seta is a visiting professor at Payap University Division of Music in Thailand.
Dai Fujikura is a Japanese-born composer of contemporary classical music.
Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Germany but returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima, and instrumental music.
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is an symphony orchestra in Shanghai, China. The music director is Yu Long.
The Great Music Experience was a concert starring Japanese and international musicians staged at the eighth century Buddhist temple of Tōdai-ji, in Nara, Japan in May 1994. The concert, held over three nights and partly backed by UNESCO, took place in front of the world's largest wooden building, housing the largest Buddha statue in the world.
Joep Franssens is a Dutch composer.
Tokyo Global Concert is a music event aimed at the promotion of arts and culture and international development held in Tokyo, Japan inviting renowned opera singers from both Japan and overseas.
The Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta (福島青年管弦楽団) is a youth orchestra based in Fukushima developed out of the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disaster. Panos Karan and the British NPO Keys of Change created the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta (FYS) in March 2012 which mainly consists of middle-school students from the Fukushima Prefecture....