Kunitada Matsuoka

Participation from the 3rd of February till the 26th of February 2015

“I was worried about how the Dutch children would take to Japanese music, but as I started my life in Amsterdam, I realized that that they took to the style familiarly.”

Kunitada Matsuoka

Kunitada Matsuoka is a hornist, componist and dirigent from Tokyo.   He is well known for translating old stories (of sometimes even over a 1000 years old) and sounds into modern compositions. For his stay in Amsterdam Matsuoka originally wanted to reproduce the music that had come from the Netherlands to Japan in the past in an opera-like musical story. However as this would be a very big plan to realize during the short period and therefor chose to collaborate with the AYSO (www.ayso.nl) , a youth orchestra in Amsterdam and it’s conductor Peter Veenhuizen. Matsuoka composed a special piece for the orchestra to perform. He was a bit scared that the Japanese style would not be liked by the Dutch children, but found that they accepted it readily. The piece was composed out of a combination of a more modern harmony and the harmony and melody of gagaku (old Japanese court music). It was for the audience to experience the beauty and tradition of Japan. The piece was named Stories that the wind told.

Kunitada also met with Jazz pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland with whom he played Jazz during his last week in Amsterdam. They also held a small goodbye performance together in café the Pianist in Amsterdam.

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