ARTIST

Yuji Takahashi (composition, piano)

Yuji Takahashi was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1938. After studying composition under Minao Shibata and Roh Ogura, he moved to Europe and worked with Jannis Xenakis in 1963 - 1966. From 1966 to 1972, he lived in the U.S.A. where he played as a contemporary music pianist and studied computer music. In the 1970s, Takahashi edited a quarterly magazine on new music, and formed the Suigyu Band (Water Buffalo Band) in 1978 to perform Asian protest songs.
He began improvising on the piano with the computer from early 1980s, and started composing/performing works for Japanese traditional instruments and voice in the 1990s.
Takahashi’s collaboration works with variety of distinguished artists are also very well renowned. He has produced story works using film slide and music with painter Taeko Tomiyama since 1976, collaborated with poet Fujii Sadakazu since 1995 and co-produced a theater piece “Doro no Umi (Sea of Mud)” with Fujii in 2000. He has also co-worked with sangen (shamisen) player Kazuko Takada and the Indonesian dancer Sardono W. Kusumo, etc.
Takahashi has also written several books such as “Takahashi Yuji Collection 1970’s” and a cowritten picture book with Taeko Tomiyama “Kero Kero Kororo”.
In 2006, he received a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York.