updated 22 December 2017
© Seiji Okumiya

Dai Fujikura

Japanese composer born in 1977 in Osaka

Dai Fujikura was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1977. He moved to Europe at the age of fifteen and studied at Trinity College, London, with Daryl Runswick, with Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of London, and George Benjamin at King’s College, London.

In 2004, the London Sinfonietta premiered Fujikura’s Fifth Station, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. Peter Eötvös, who was strongly encouraging of Fujikura’s work, conducted the world premiere of Vast Ocean in 2005 at the Donaueschingen festival, with the Hilversum Radio Orchestra and the experimental studio Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung. In 2005, Pierre Boulez conducted the world premiere of Stream State in Lucerne; that same year, Fujikura was commissioned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain for Code 80, which premiered at the Cité de la Musique in Paris on the occasion of Boulez’s 80th birthday.

Crushing Twister, a commission from the BBC Orchestra, premiered in 2006 at the BBC London Proms. That same year, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra included Fujikura’s music in its Music Now series. Many other celebrated orchestras and ensembles have commissioned his compositions, including the Ensemble Modern – Vanishing Point (2004/2006) – Klangforum Wien, the BIT20 ensemble Wave Embraced (2006), the Orchestre de Radio France and the IRCAM – Swarming essence for orchestra and electronics (2006), the Ensemble Intercontemporain – Time unlocked and …as I am… in 2007, and Secret Forest, which premiered at the Festival Musica in Strasbourg in 2009.

Other commissions include several concertos: Ampere, for piano for the Philharmonia Orchestra (2008); a Recorder Concerto that premiered at the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw in a performance by the Resonanz ensemble, conducted by Peter Rundel; a Double Bass Concerto commissioned by the London Sinfonietta in 2010; a Bassoon Concerto commissioned by Pascal Gallois and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony in October 2012; a Flute Concerto, commissioned by the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2015; and a Cello Concerto, which premiered in 2018.

Fujikura is a prolific composer who has also written numerous chamber music pieces, including Breathing Tides for oboe and shô, one of several pieces that include traditional Japanese instruments commissioned by the Okeanos ensemble; a second string quartet, Flare (2011), which was premiered by the Arditti Quartet, as well as several vocal pieces with texts by Harry Ross, including Lake Side,  Away we play (2010), papaver (2013), and Zawazawa (2016). Fujikura has also collaborated with the video artist Tomoya Yamaguchi on chamber music pieces such as Moromoro, for piano, tape, and video (2003), and Fluid Calligraphy for violin (2010).

His first opera, Solaris, with live electromics, a joint commission by the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Lille and Lausanne Operas, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the IRCAM, premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 2015, directed and choreographed by Saburo Teshigawara. In 2017, he composed his second opera, The Gold-Bug with libretto by Edgar Allan Poe (which premiered in 2018).

Dai Fujikura has won many awards and honors, among them the Serocki International Composers Competition in 1998, the Huddersfiled Young Composers Prize in 1998, a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2004, the Claudio Abbado Prize in Vienna in 2005, the Paul Hindemith Prize at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in 2007, and a special prize from the Giga-Hertz-Awards in 2008. in 2009, his Secret Forest won the Otaka Prize and …as I am… was awarded the Akutagawa Prize.


© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2017

Sources

Site de Dai Fujikura (voir ressources documentaires), éditions Ricordi.

Discographie

  • Dai FUJIKURA, Time unlocked ; Vanishing Point ; Fifth station ; Grasping ; Calling, Prague Modern ; Pascal Gallois, direction, 1 cd Stradivarius, 2014.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Mina (I) ; Prism Spectra (II) ; Following (III) ; The Spirit Of Beings (IV) ; Recorder Concerto (V) ; Wondrous Steps (VI), dans « Mina », International Contemporary Ensemble, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, direction (I) ; Miranda Cuckson, violon, David Adamyck, électronique (II) ; Rebekah Heller, basson (III) ; Matthew Barley, violoncelle (IV) ; Ensemble Resonanz, Jeremias Schwarzer, flûte à bec (V) ; Lucerne Ensemble Festival, Chin-Chao Lin, direction (VI), 1 cd Minabel, 2014, min104.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Ampere – Concerto For Piano And Orchestra (I) ; Fluid Calligraphy (II) ; Stream State (III) ; Poyopoyo (IV) ; Perla (V) ; My Butterflies (VI), Noriko Ogawa, piano, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Thierry Fischer, direction (I) ; Barbara Lünenburg, violon (II) ;  Lucerne Ensemble Festival, Pierre Boulez, direction (III) ; Nobuaki Fukukawa, cor (IV) ; Inbar Solomon, flûte à bec (V) ; De Paul University Ensemble 20+, Michael Lewanski, direction (VI), 1 cd Minabel, 2014, min101.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Flare (I) ; But, I Fly (II) ; Sakana (III) ; Dolphins (IV) ; Halcyon (V) ; Flux (VI) ; Scion Stems (VII), Arditti Quartet (I) ; Vox Humana (II) ; Masanori Oishi, saxophone ténor (III) ; Kenji Nakagi, Mari Endo, violoncelles (IV) ; Goldfield Ensemble (V) ; Johanna Persson, alto (VI) ; Zilliacus/Persson/Raitinen String Trio (VII), 1 cd Minabel, 2013, min100.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Sparks ; Ice  ; Phantom Splinter ; Abandoned Time ; I Dreamed On Singing Flowers ; Sparking Orbit, Daniel Lippel, guitare ; International Contemporary Ensemble, Jayce Ogren, Matthew Ward, direction, 1 cd Kairos, 2013, 0013302KAI.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Sparks, Kosuke Hashizume : guitare, iTune, 2011.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, But, I fly, Vox Humana, direction : Ryuta Nishikawa, iTune, 2010.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Sakana, Masanori Oishi : saxophone, iTune, 2010.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Tomoya YAMAGUCHI, Fluid Calligraphy, dans « Weapon of Choice », Barbara Lüneburg : violon, avec des œuvres de Henry Vega/Emmanuel Flores, Alexander Schubert, Yannis Kyriakides, Marko Ciciliani, 1 cd Ahornfelder, 2010.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Inkling dans « Sound Census, Endymion », Bruce Nockles, trompette, avec des œuvres d’Anthony Gilbert, Anthony Payne, Philip Cashian, Simon Bainbridge, Martin Butler, Colin Matthews, Joe Duddell, Bayan Northcott, Peter Maxwell Davies, Brian Elias, Joanna Bailie, James Weeks, Simon Holt,  Philip Venables, Vic Hoyland, Morgan Hayes, Melinda Maxwell, Edward Cowie, Christopher Fox, Simon Wills, Naomi Pinnock, 1 cd NMC, 2010.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Poison Mushroom, dans « Claire Chase, Aliento », Claire Chase : flûte, avec des œuvres de Nathan Davis, Jason Eckardt,  Edgar Guzmán, Marcelo Toledo, Du Yun, International Contemporary Ensemble, 1 cd New Focus Recordings, 2009.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, The Voice dans « Pascal Gallois # 3 », Pascal Gallois, Rohan de Saram, avec des œuvres d’Olga Neuwirth et Bruno Mantovani, 1 cd Stradivarius, 2008, STR 33799.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Abandoned Time, Daniel Lippel : guitare, International Contemporary Ensemble, direction : Matthew Ward, avec des œuvres de Mario Davidovsky, Kaija Saariaho, Du Yun et Magnus Lindberg, 1 cd New Focus Recordings, 2008.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Perla (nouvelle version), Dorothee Oberlinger : flûte, 1 cd Witten 08 CD, 2008.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Lake Side, dans « The NMC Songbook », Lore Lixenberg : voix , avec des œuvres de Julian Anderson, Simon Bainbridge, Richard Baker, Gerard Barry, Daniel Basford, Alison Bauld, Rupert Bawden, David Bedford, Luke Bedford, Michael Berkeley, Judith Bingham, Harrison Birtwistle, David Blake, Gavin Bryards, Diana Burrell, Martin Butler, Gary Carpenter, Philip Cashian, John Casken, Richard Causton, Jonathan Cole, Lyell Cresswell, Gordon Crosse, Joe Cutler, Jeremy Dale Roberts, Brian Elias, Miachel Finnissy, Ben Foskett, Christopher Fox, Anthony Gilbert, Alexander Goehr, Philip Grange, Julian Grant, Helen Grime, Emily Hall, Bryn Harrison, Sadie Harrison, Jonathan Harvey, Morgan Hayes, Robin Holloway, Simon Holt, David Horne, Emily Howard, Jordan Hunt, Robert Keeley, Blaar Kindsdottir, Rachel Leach, Nicola Lefanu, Jonathan Lloyd, James Macmillan, Stuart Macrae, John McCabe, Roger Marsh, Phillip Neil Martin, Colin Matthews, David Matthews, Peter Maxwell Davies, Christopher Mayo, Anna Meredith, Claudia Molitor, Stephen Montague, Lloyd Moore, Thea Musgrave, Bayan Northcott, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Anthony Payne, Joseph Phibbs, Julian Philips, Geoffrey Poole, Jonathan Powell, Anthony Powers, Edwin Roxburgh, Edward Rushton, Nicholas Sackman, David Sawer, Robert Saxton, Julia Simpson, Howard Skempton, Luke Stoneham, Giles Swayne, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Errollyn Wallen, Huw Watkins, Judith Weir, John White, Peter Wiegold, Roderick Williams, Hugh Wood, John Woolrich, 4 cds NMC Label, 2009, NMC D150.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Moromoro, dans « Cosmos Haptic: Contemporary Piano Music from Japan », Hiroaki Takenouchi : piano, avec des œuvres de Joji Yuasa, Toru Takemitsu, Akira Miyoshi, Ichiro Nodaïra, Toshio Hosokawa, Keiko Harada, Sachiyo Tsurumi, 1 cd Lorelt, 2008, LNT128.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Eternal Escape, Katinka Kleijn, iTune, 2007.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Sleeping ashes, dans « Into the 21st Century », Aleksander Szram : piano, 1 cd fonorum, 2006.
  • Dai FUJIKURA,Fifth Station, London Sinfonietta, Louise Hopkins : violoncelle, direction : Martyn Brabbins, 1 cd London Sinfonietta Label, 2006, SINFCD2-2006.
  • Dai FUJIKURA, Locked Voices, dans « Double Action, Reaction », Keziah Thomas, Eleanor Tuner : harpes, Arts in Fusion records, http://artsinfusion.myshopify.com

Bibliographie

  • Elizabeth AVELING, « interview Dai Fujikura », dans On Japan, Grande-Bretagne, mars 2004, p. 3*.*
  • « Phantom Pulse de Dai Fujikura au Festival de Lucerne », dans BMG Editions –Newsletter internationale* n° 6, septembre – décembre 2006 [rubrique Ricordi London]
  • Dai FUJIKURA, « What music can learn from the movement of birds and fish », The Guardian, 30 novembre 2011, en ligne sur http://www.guardian.co.uk
  • Nick REYLAND, interview de Dai Fujikura à propos de Fifth Station, du 17 octobre 2002, sur http://www.daifujikura.com/un/iv1.html et http://www.daifujikura.com/un/iv2.html
  • « Note de programme Vanishing Point » dans le programme « Le Japon, Racines et Ruptures », Paris, Cité de la musique, juin 2006, p. 3-4, 16, note de programme en ligne sur : http://mediatheque.cite-musique.fr 

Liens Internet

(lien vérifié en décembre 2017).