Ayuo
| Ayuo Takahashi | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | October 19, 1960 |
| Occupation(s) | composer, lyricist, singer, instrumentalist |
| Website | www |
| Notable instruments | |
| guitar bouzouki Irish harp Chinese zheng Japanese koto |
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Ayuo Takahashi (born October 19, 1960 in Tokyo, Japan and raised in New York City) is a Japanese-American composer, poet, lyricist, singer and performer of plucked string instruments including guitar, bouzouki, Irish harp, Chinese zheng, Japanese koto,and medieval European psaltery. He is adept at adapting the ancient music of Japan, China, Persia, Greece and medieval Europe to create a new and original music without abandoning their strict forms, while simultaneously making them relevant to contemporary music styles. He has composed for classical ensembles including string quartets, piano, various chamber ensembles and orchestra, as well as composed, produced and performed with rock, jazz and musicians of various traditional music from around the world. He has also composed many music theater pieces, some of which has been released on CD in the United States and Japan.
Ayuo Takahashi was born in Tokyo, and spent his early childhood traveling in Germany, Sweden and France with his parents. His father, Yuji Takahashi, is a composer of contemporary classical music and a pianist known for premiering works by Iannis Xenakis and John Cage. Ayuo and his parents settled in New York City in 1966. Ayuo grew up listening to both the new avant-garde experimental and contemporary music and the psychedelic rock music of the 1960s. He often went to museums, art galleries and cinemas to see exhibitions of contemporary art and the new cinema. At the same time, he also saw Japanese traditional Noh plays, and heard ancient and medieval music from Japan and Europe. All these were to be become important influences in Ayuo's music and music-theater pieces. Ayuo's parents divorced in 1969, and Ayuo's mother married an Iranian-American, who came from a family that performed traditional Persian music in the courts of the Iranian Shah. This gave Ayuo the opportunity to hear Persian traditional music, which was also to leave a lasting influence on his music.
In 1975, Ayuo's mother and step-father separated, while Ayuo was visiting his father in Japan, forcing him to live there. His first studio recording was in 1976 with his father, Yuji Takahashi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Masahiko Togashi on the CD "Twilight" released on Columbia Records in Japan.
Adjusting to life in Japan as a teenager was difficult, and Ayuo would later make that the main theme on his CD "What We Look Like In The Picture" released in 2006 from Zipangu in Japan. Ayuo spent his high school years writing poetry and appearing in poetry reading competitions.
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