A contemporary music specialist, pianist Aki Kuroda teaches at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese in Italy. Mutsumi Hatano, highly esteemed as an early music interpreter, has also collaborated frequently with Takahashi. The flautists for the recording were Yoshie Ueno, who has appeared as soloist with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and the promising Mayu Izumi. Oboists Mieko Takasu and Kanami Araki are principals of the Tokyo Metropolitan SO and Tokyo SO respectively. Clarinettist Kaori Tanaka has performed solos with the Sinfonieorchester Basel and her colleague Kei Ito is principal of the NHK SO. Kosuke Hara (contrabass clarinet) also enjoys high regard as a soloist. Norihito Yamada, of the Tokyo Metropolitan SO, and Masamichi Sasazaki are among Japan’s leading contrabassoon players. Saxophonist Katsuki Tochio has been a frequent collaborator with Takahashi since 2006, and helped create new performance materials for Prajña Pâramitâ. Horn players Nobuaki Fukukawa and Megumi Nemoto are principals of the NHK SO and Kobe Chamber Orchestra respectively. Besides their orchestral work, trumpeters Jin Ueda, Yuzuru Miyamoto, Moe Matsuyama, Mio Morioka and Yuta Uetake are intensely active as soloists. The trombonists Kousei Murata, Daigo Hirose and Shinya Hashimoto and percussionists Yoshiko Kanda, Mizuki Aita and Takeshi Kubota all have their own fields of interest besides contemporary music. Harpist Ruriko Yamamiya won First Prize at the Lily Laskine International Harp Competition. Violinists Ami Oike, Chihiro Inda, Sayaka Kinoshiro, Ryosuke Suho, Keiko Tokunaga and Maiko Matsuoka are all world-class performers; Oike won First Prize at the Manchester International Competition. Headed by Kenji Nakagi, graduate of the CNSP in Paris, the cello section comprised such gifted musicians as Kei Yamazawa, Akiko Hasegawa, Yui Hosoi, Yoshiyuki Kanie and Dai Yamamoto. Bassist Yoji Sato, guitarist Gaku Yamada and accordion-player Tomomi Ota enjoy excellent reputations in both contemporary and mainstream music. Japan’s leading sound artist Sumihisa Arima took care of the electronics, and the musical direction was in the capable hands of composer and conductor Yoichi Sugiyama.
