Biography

Currently Artistic Director of the AOI Concert Hall in Shizuoka, Ichiro Nodaïra pursues a dual career as pianist and composer. He was born in 1953 in Tokyo, where he studied composition at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. A scholarship awarded by the French government enabled him to pursue his training at the Paris Conservatory under the guidance of Henriette Puig-Roget, Betsy Jolas, Serge Nigg, Michel Philippot and Jean Koerner.

After earning first prizes in composition, analysis and piano accompaniment, he took part in various courses taught by György Ligeti, Franco Donatoni, Peter Eötvös and Brian Ferneyhough. He also took a computer music course at the IRCAM. Founder of the Tokyo Sinfonietta, he was lecturer at the University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo from 1990 to 2002. In France he has received commissions from the Ministry for the Arts and the Ensemble intercontemporain. His work is mainly performed in Europe and Japan and has received many distinctions, including the Japan Art Encouragement Prize of Fine Arts.

He has written close to one hundred works for a wide range of instruments, ranging from traditional Japanese instruments to electronics, and sometimes combining both. Ichiro Nodaïra has also composed many vocal works, including an opera Madrugala, premiered in 2005 under the direction of Kent Nagano.