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REVIEWS & ESSAYS

Egoistas vol.37 12/15/20
My Encounter with Contemporary Music
My interest in the 20th and 21st century extensions of Classical Music tradition began when I was twenty years old. As a music student at that time, I was studying 18th and 19th century masters like Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms, later expanding my studies to include Debussy (whose compositions straddled the 19th and 20th centuries), as well as 20th century masters Ravel, and Prokofiev. Due to my father's career necessitating my family’s relocation to the United States, I spent the first year of junior high school in New York and remained there throughout my college years. This new environment allowed me the good fortune of having many opportunities to be exposed to multiple genres of music. In New York, where musicians rooted in various musical cultures from around the world gather, and where people of many races and religions intermingle, I was able to attend not only classical music concerts, but also jazz and pop events. I think this mind and ear opening exposure to many types of music, as well as my personal interaction with musicians of diverse musical heritage, played a major role in the fact that I am now a musician specializing in modern and contemporary piano music. My initial exposure to contemporary music took place during those student days while attending a Carnegie Hall recital by Maurizio Pollini. The first half of the program consisted of Chopin's 24 Preludes while the second half was the Sonata No. 2 of Pierre Boulez (1925- 2016), one of France's leading contemporary composers. Expecting to feast on the Chopin, I was surprised when by concert’s end the Preludes seemed to me to have been the hors d'oeuvre, such was the overwhelming impact of the Boulez piece. Interestingly this initial exposure to contemporary music found me sharing the often experienced impression of the general Classical music audience upon first contact with contemporary music, namely that the music was complicated and difficult to play. Yet at the same time, I experienced it as a truly mind and ear expanding event. Needless to say, my musical horizons were broadened as I continued to study 20th and 21st century music, which in turn deepened my understanding of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic music I had previously studied. This is because the music of the present day has developed out of the classical music traditions of the past, and understanding contemporary music has led me to reevaluate from a different angle those classical music traditions I had studied. In addition to its basis upon, and extensions of Classical music traditions, contemporary music has also been heavily influenced by jazz, as well as by a variety of folk and ethnic music from around the world. As a result of my immersion in contemporary music I transcended the sense of boundaries between musical genres which I had previously experienced. My experience of the contemporary music world is that of an ideal world or society where people of different races and religions mix, influence each other, resonate with each other, sometimes clash with each other, and strive to find equitable solutions. It is precisely this kind of music that was born out of an era and society in which people began to have such an awareness. As a performer and instructor, I aspire to help the audience, professional musicians, and all students of music to touch, learn, and feel modern and contemporary music from such a perspective. The Modern and Contemporary Piano Music Festival in Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture, which I presided over this year, gathers students of the younger generation from all over Japan and holds concerts, masterclasses, lecture concerts, etc. With the catchphrase "Open the door to new music" the audience, performers, composers, and students work together as one. The philosophy of this music festival is to introduce new piano music to the world and to pass it on to the next generation. The second Music Festival will be held in the summer of 2020, and we are looking forward to the children's section that will be added.