Under the direction of associate professor of music, E. Michael Richards,"Hirai V," was written by Japanese composer Masataka Matsuo for the HamiltonCollege Orchestra, Richards and pianist Kazuko Tanosaki, a lecturer in music atHamilton.
"The opportunity for 45 students of a small liberal arts school to participatein this international project not only separates Hamilton College from othercomparable schools, but from most professional schools as well," saysRichards.
Richards and the orchestra commissioned "Hirai V" which is a Japanese wordthat means `come flying,' for a performance at their 1992 Japanese musicsymposium at Hamilton, which was conducted by Matsuo. In 1995, Matsuo returnedfor the annual orchestra concert, which included "Hirai V," and held arecording session as well.
Matsuo graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts in 1984 and wasimmediately recognized by a number of awards for contemporary compositionincluding the Special Prize at the Japan/France Competition for ContemporaryMusic in 1985. Tanosaki, born in Japan, was a first prize winner in the 1982La Jolla Orchestra Young Artist Competition in San Diego. She was educated atthe Kunitachi College of Music (B.A.) and received a M.A. in piano performancefrom the University of California, San Diego. Currently, she is a student inthe DMA program in piano performance and literature at the Eastman School ofMusic.
Richards has premiered over 125 works that have utilized the clarinet atperformances throughout the US, Japan, Australia and Western Europe. He hasconducted the Hamilton College Orchestra since 1984 when he arrived at Hamiltonafter a year as Conductor of Instrumental Ensembles at Bowdoin College. He is agraduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, holds master's degrees fromYale University School of Music and Smith College and earned a Ph.D. from theUniversity of California, San Diego.
The Hamilton College Orchestra was founded in 1970 and has grown to includemore than 50 students. The Orchestra has undertaken four concert tours withinthe last seven years - one by invitation of the governments of Romania andBulgaria to tour those countries for fourteen days. The Orchestra hasperformed with internationally renowned contra-bassist Bertram Turetzky;virtuosa performer of the koto, Nanae Yoshimura and commissioned and performednew works for orchestra by Richard Boulanger, Masao Honma, Jay Reise (class of1972) and Samuel Pellman, professor of music at Hamilton.
The recording was made possible by generous grants from the Office of thePresident and the Office of Dean of the Faculty.
