October 21, 2002 Contact: Li-Ling Wang

Joel Sachs Conducts Works by Ushio Torikai,
Karen Tanaka, Jackson Hill, Toshio Hosokawa,
John Cage, Joji Yuasa, Paul Chihara,
Toshi Ichiyanagi, and Suguro Goto

The New Juilliard Ensemble, led by director and conductor Joel Sachs, presents a preview concert of their upcoming performance at the Festival Whynote in Dijon, France, on Friday, November 22 at 8 PM in Juilliard’s Paul Hall. The program features Ushio Torikai’s Gathered, Scatter, the U.S. premiere of Karen Tanaka’s Invisible Curve, the New York premiere of Jackson Hill’s Hikyoku, Toshio Hosokawa’s Vertical Time Study I, John Cage’s Aria, with solos from Concert, Joji Yuasa’s Viola Locus, Toshi Ichiyanagi’s Sapporo, Suguro Goto’s Giseion to Gousei (Onomatopoeia and Montage), and a preview of the world premiere of
Paul Chihara’s Amatsu Kaze. This program, which has been requested by the Festival Whynote, focuses on the interactions between Japanese culture and the West; it is to be repeated on November 28 at the festival.

No tickets are required for this FREE concert; for more information call the Juilliard Box Office, Monday through Friday, 11 AM to 6 PM, at (212) 769-7406. Juilliard’s Paul Hall is located at 60 Lincoln Center Plaza.

Ushio Torikai, born in Matsumoto, Japan in 1952, started a concert series of her music in Tokyo in 1979. Her music has been heard in many countries, including China, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mongolia, and the U.S. She also has written for the Japan National Theater, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, the City of Los Angeles, and the Kronos Quartet. Ms. Torikai studied violin, piano, and traditional Japanese instruments shamisen and koto, and received a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Keio University in Tokyo. Her solo album Go Where? has been released on Japan Victor label (JVC).

Karen Tanaka, born in Tokyo, Japan in 1961, began piano lessons at age four and composition at age ten. She studied composition with Akira Miyoshi at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, Tristan Murail at Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), and Luciano Berio in Florence. She also has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Viotti and Trieste Competition, the 1987 International Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam, and the Muramatsu Prize in Japan. Her music has been widely performed in Europe and Japan. Her works also have been featured at Juilliard’s FOCUS! festival.

Jackson Hill, born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1941, began composing at age fourteen. He studied composition with Iain Hamilton at Duke University and Roger Hannay at the University of North Carolina. His interest in Japanese culture began with exposure to gagaku (Japanese court music and dance) while in college; his first composition to reflect his Japanese influences is the Serenade for shakuhachi, violin, cello, and koto, which was composed in 1970. Mr. Hill received a Ph.D. degree in musicology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently is on the music faculty at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

Toshio Hosokawa, born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1955, studied piano and composition in Tokyo before moving to West Berlin. He studied composition with Isang Yun at the Hochschule der Kunste, and with Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough at the Municipal Hochschule in Freiburg. He holds numerous prizes and awards, including first prize in the Valentino Bucchi Composition Competition in Rome, as well as the composition competition held to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Berlin Philharmonic, which included a commission from the orchestra. Mr. Hosokawa also has been invited to many major festivals in Europe as composer-in-residence and lecturer.

Paul Seiko Chihara, born in Seattle, Washington in 1938, received a doctor of musical arts degree from Cornell University in 1965 as a pupil of Robert Palmer. He also studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Ernst Pepping in Berlin, and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood. Mr. Chihara has been composer-in-residence at the Marlboro Music Festival, and for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the San Francisco Ballet. He currently is a member of the music faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles. His numerous commissions and awards include those from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund, and National Endowment for the Arts, as well as from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New Japan Philharmonic, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Joji Yuasa, born in Koriyama, Japan in 1929, was a medical student at the Keio University in Japan when he became interested in composition. He has won major awards and prizes including the Prix Italia, the Jury's Special Prize of the Berlin Film Festival, the San Marco Golden Lion Prize, the Otaka Prize, and the Grand Prize of the Japan Art Festival. His commissions have come from, among others, the Koussevitzky Foundation, Saarland Radio Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Canada Council, Suntory Music Foundation, IRCAM, and Expo '70.

Toshi Ichiyanagi, born in Kobe, Japan in 1933, came to New York in 1952 to study composition at Juilliard and social research at The New School. Later he met John Cage and became involved in his "downtown" music experimental projects. In 1961 Mr. Ichiyanagi returned to Japan and founded the New Directions group. He has organized numerous musical projects and festivals to broaden the view of Japanese audience in western avant-garde music. In addition, he has worked in the NHK electronic music studio. In 1966 he returned to New York for a composition residency sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. He has been the recipient of DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) composition fellowship in Berlin.

Suguru Goto, born in Japan in 1966, has received numerous prizes and fellowships including the Koussevitzky Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center, first prize in the Marzena International Composition Competition in Seattle, and the composition prize of the Berlin Senate Administration for Cultural Affairs. His commissions have come from major institutions in Tokyo including the NHK Broadcasting Company, the NHK Danyu Orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic. Mr. Goto also has produced electro-acoustic compositions for many institutions in Germany and Japan. His Giseion to Gousei has been recorded on the Akademie der Knste label.

Juilliard faculty member Joel Sachs performs a vast range of traditional and contemporary music as conductor and pianist. A member of the music history faculty of Juilliard, Dr. Sachs currently is writing a biography of the American composer Henry Cowell and makes frequent appearances on radio as a commentator on recent music. As co-director of the acclaimed new music ensemble Continuum, he has appeared in hundreds of performances in New York, nationally, and internationally. He produces and directs The Juilliard School’s annual FOCUS! festival, is artistic director of the annual 18-concert Summergarden festival at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (on hiatus until completion of the Museum’s renovations), and is a co-director of the Sonic Boom festival of contemporary music presented by a consortium of New York City’s most prestigious new-music ensembles. In 1993 Joel Sachs proposed a new ensemble to Juilliard’s President Joseph W. Polisi. Since then, the New Juilliard Ensemble has brought new audiences to new music with their annual series of free concerts featuring new music by composers from around the world as well as offering opportunities for Juilliard composers to showcase their works. A large part of the repertory has been composed for the New Juilliard Ensemble - as of last season, 44 compositions, perhaps 20% of the total programming. The Ensemble just finished its second summer with the Lincoln Center Festival performing the music of Chinese composers Guo Wenjing and Bright Sheng. They performed a concert of music by the groundbreaking Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino in their debut festival appearance last summer.