MORISHITA Chikako

Profile

Chikako Morishita is a Japanese composer and pianist. Morishita earned her bachelor and master's degree in composition from the Tokyo University of the Arts and has attended the International Ensemble Modern Academy and the Australian Contemporary Arts Academy at Tokyo Wonder Site, where she studied with Hanspeter Kyburz, Liza Lim. She is currently studying for an MA by research at the University of Huddersfield (UK), under the guidance of Liza Lim and Aaron Cassidy.

Her works have been performed and commissioned by the Geidai-Philharmonic, ELISION, Ensemble Oto-Bouzu, Java Gamelan Ensemble WASABI, Adalbert Skocic, Hiroki Kadowaki in Japan and UK. Also active as a writer, her article '"ma" - the heart of silence' was published in the Center for Research in New Music (CeReNeM) Journal in February 2010 （http://www2.hud.ac.uk/mhm/mmt/research/cerenem-journal/issue-1.php）.



As a pianist, Morishita has performed and recorded with the Tokyo Philharmonic and premiered numerous new compositions in major venues such as the Suntory Summer Festival, the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award and the JSCM Award for Composers; she also played in the Japanese premiere of B.A. Zimmermann's opera Die Soldaten in 2008.  Additionally, as a performer she has worked with Helmut Lachenmann, Tristan Murail, Joji Yuasa, Dai Fujikura and several young composers.

 

About works / performance

Her recent compositions focus on inter-cultural exchange, Japanese aesthetics of presence and absence, and the relationship between music's form and performers' inner states. Currently she is writing for saxophonist Timothy O'Dwyer, for clarinetist Richard Haynes, and recorder player Andreas Bohlen&percussionist Tobias Guttmann duo.

extract from The realm of dream (2009) for Java gamelan ensemble
 

Realm of dream for Javanese Gamelan ensemble
1. 2009, ensemble WASABI performance

'Hair'varitaions for alto saxophone
2010, excerption from the score