Mojibei Tokiwazu V (b. 1961) has been instrumental in keeping Tokiwazu-style music alive, as his very name reflects: “Mojibei Tokiwazu” is not his original name, but one bestowed on him as an honor – as it had been bestowed previously on other members of his family – in recognition of his contribution to the art.  Mojibei Tokiwazu V is in the fifth generation of one of the style’s first families, and the tradition was directly handed down to him by both his great-uncle and his father, the former Mojibei Tokiwazu IV (b. 1927), who is now a member of the Japan Art Academy and designated a “Living National Treasure”, like his father – Mojibei Tokiwazu III – before him.  In 1995, Mojibei Tokiwazu V became a “Master Player” of Tokiwazu-style music for Kabuki and in 2004 he received special recognition for his performance from the National Theatre of Japan.  He is also committed to new music, as both performer and composer; he has premiered new works in such international venues as Carnegie Hall, and in 1992 he received the Fifth Seieikai Encouragement Prize for his activities in both traditional performance and contemporary composition.  Tokiwazu Mojibei V has taught Tokiwazu-style music at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music since 1994 and served as guest lecturer (in the capacity of composer-in-residence) at Waseda University Theatre Arts Museum in 2005.  In October 2008 he was dispatched to Korea by the Japanese government as a special cultural emissary.

Eiju Tokiwazu (Mojibei Tokiwazu IV) was born in 1927 as the second son of Mojibei Tokiwazu III (later known as Mojiou Tokiwazu), a Living National Treasure and member of the prestigious Japan Art Academy.  In 1932 he began studying Tokiwazu vocal style of Joruri music and shamisen with his uncle Yaohachi Tokiwazu IV.  In 1941 he was presented with the name Eihachiro Tokiwazu.

Eihachiro Tokiwazu assumed the position of Principal Shamisen in 1948 and in 1960 succeeded to the Mojibei Tokiwazu name to become Mojibei Tokiwazu IV.

Between 1951 and 1983 he was awarded the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival Prize 7 times. In 1984 he was given the Exxon-Mobil Music Prize and in 1990 received one of Japan's highest Medals of Honor, the Medal with a Purple Ribbon.  He was designated a Living National Treasure in 1992 and was recipient of a Special Japan Art Academy Prize in 1993.  He was inducted into the Japan Art Academy in 1994. In 1996 his name was changed to Eiju Tokiwazu.  Then in 1997 he was invested with the Emperor's Prize of The Order of the Sacred Treasure.

He began his composing career in 1956, and has written for a widely diversified range of instruments and genres from classical Japanese dance to contemporary instrumental works.  His total oeuvre comes to well over 370 compositions

Kumiko Omura is a prolific composer for both conventional and electronic media.  After her studies at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, from which she holds a Masters in Intermedia Art, she studied composition with Nicolaus A. Huber and electronic music with Ludger Brümmer at the Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen, Germany, and participated in the annual composition course at IRCAM, Paris.  She has gone on to win numerous international awards, including the Irino Prize (1994), the Grand Prix at the Gaudeamus Music Week in Holland (1998), Young Artist Prize at the Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany (2000), the ACL Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize (2000), and the Takefu Composition Award (2004).  Her works have been performed in America, Europe, Korea, and Japan at such festivals as Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Musica Viva, and International Computer Music Conference in Germany, and Festival Agora and Centre Acanthes in France.  She is currently a guest artist at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany.  At the end of March, her first solo CD will be released by Fontec, Japan in the series “Japanese Composers” (www.fontec.co.jp).

Mari Kimura is a composer/violinist hailed by the New York Times as “a virtuoso playing at the edge.”  She is widely admired for her revolutionary extended technique, “Subharmonics”, and for solo performances of diverse programs including her works with interactive computer music.  She has won numerous awards both in her native Japan and in the U.S., and she has been invited to international festivals around the world in more than 20 countries, including Spring in Budapest, Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, International Bartók Festival, Cervantino Festival in Mexico, ISCM World Music Days, and at IRCAM, Paris, among others.  In 2007, Ms. Kimura gave the world premiere of Jean-Claude Risset’s Violin Concerto (written for her), playing her own cadenza and performing with the Tokyo Symphony at the Suntory Hall.  Her numerous radio and TV appearances include CNN’s Headline News, NY-1, NHK radio in Japan, and WNYC-FM’s  Around New York.  Described as the “plugged-in Paganini for the digital age” (All Music Guide), Ms. Kimura recently released her highly-acclaimed solo album for violin and electronics, Polytopia, from Bridge Records.  Ms. Kimura’s works have been supported by grants including the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Jerome Foundation, Arts International, Japan Foundation, Meet the Composer, and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).  Ms. Kimura holds a doctorate in performance from Juilliard, and gives lectures in universities and conservatories throughout the world.  Since 1998, Ms. Kimura has been teaching a graduate class in Computer Music Performance at the Juilliard School.

Takayuki Rai (b. 1954) specializes in interactive computer music, and also composes for Western and traditional Japanese instruments.  He studied composition with Yoshiro Irino and Helmut Lachenmann, and computer music with Paul Berg at Holland’s Institute of Sonology, where he was guest composer from 1982-90.  His works have been selected at numerous international festivals, such as the Gaudeamus Competition, ISCM World Music Days, and the International Computer Music Conference, and his competition wins include first prize at the Bourges Competition (1985), Japan’s Irino Prize (1981), the USA’s NEWCOMP International Computer Music Competition (1989), and the ICMA Commission Award (1991).  Takayuki Rai currently teaches computer music at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts and the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo.

Tomomi Adachi (b. 1972) is a performer, composer, sound poet, installation artist, instrument builder, and occasional theater director.  His compositions include works for his own punk-style choir, the Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus; the chorus has recorded several of these works for the Tzadik label on the album Yo, which is widely available.  He has presented his music at such international venues as IRCAM-Centre Pompidou and STEIM, in Europe, and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.  He has organized concerts in Germany and Japan, collaborating with musicians including Nicolas Collins, Carl Stone, Toshi Ichiyanagi, and Akira Sakata.  Mr. Adachi’s performances of works by John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Christian Wolff, Dieter Schnebel, Yuji Takahashi, and Fluxus include both world and Japanese premieres, and he directed the Japanese premiere of John Cage’s Europera5 in 2007.  He is one of the few native performers of Japan’s great sound poetry tradition, and gave the Japanese premiere of Kurt Schwitters’s Ursonate.  His recent work focuses on solo performance (for voice, sensors, computer, and self-made instruments), sound poetry, video installation, and workshop-style large-ensemble pieces for non-professional voice and instruments.

Mari Takano trained with Mutsuo Shishido in Japan, and then with Brian Ferneyhough and György Ligeti in Germany.  Since graduating from the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater in 1988, she has gone on to build an international reputation with her works, which are scored variously for Western, electronic, and traditional Japanese instruments, as well as for voice.  Her compositions have won numerous prizes, including Förderpreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart (1985) and Ancona International Composition Competition (1986).  Ms. Takano has received many commissions, both from performers and from such institutions as the City of Hamburg (1993 and 1995), the American Embassy in Tokyo (1995), and the Kanagawa Arts Festival (1997).  In 2002 she spent three months in the U.S. as guest composer at Northwestern University.  That same year, BIS released Women’s Paradise, a CD devoted to her works, which has been internationally broadcast and celebrated; Ligeti said simply, “It smells of good music!” while, in the words of Boulez expert Jean Vermeil, the disc is “as spectacular as it is original.”