1. biografia

[amministratore_1]

Minoru MIKI
http://www.m-miki.com/index_e.html
Tokushima, 1930 - Tokyo, 2011

His first musical experiences were connected with the traditional music of his region. He had no formal music education before he moved to Okayamafor high school, where he first contacted with European classical music. From there he moved to Tokyo, graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1964. In 1964 Miki founded Pro musica Nipponia, an orchestra of traditional Japanese instruments for which he composed a large number of works. He also began cooperation with koto virtuoso Keiko Nosaka, developing the 21-string koto and reviving the instrument's repertoire with many new works in a variety of genres and combinations, including five concertos for koto and orchestra. Miki composed his first opera, Shunkinsho (based on Tanizaki's novel of the same title), in 1975. Interest by members of the English Music Theatre Company in Japanese traditional music led to contacts with Miki which resulted in the commission of Ada, An Actor's Revenge, to an English libretto by James Kirkup, which premiered in London in 1979. During this period Miki developed a relationship with theatre and opera director Colin Graham that was to last until the latter's death in 2007. The most notable result of this cooperation was the opera Jōruri, commissioned by Graham for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (where he had moved following the disbandment of the EMTC in 1980) and premiered there in 1985.
From 1992 with Wakahime, Miki turns to a pan-Asian perspective, incorporating music and instruments from a number of Asian countries in his compositions and collaborating with a number of Asian artists. Some of Miki's operas from here on - and notably Wakahime and Aien - also increasingly tend to deal with episodes of Japan's presence and interaction with its Asian neighbouring countries, often incorporating the use on stage ad within the plot of such countries' traditional instruments.