TAJIMI CHOIR

Tajimi Choir was established in 1972 following a proposal by Tajimi Junior Chamber. They welcomed Yoko Tsuge to the group as their conduntor in 1978, and Nobuaki Tanaka as their musical director in 1986 who have enjoyed high reputation as Japanese contemporary chorus performers of home and abroad. Their activities are eclectic. Among them, they mainly focus on commissioned works with eminent composers. So far they have given the first public performances. As for international exchange activities, they were invited from Singapore, the United States of America, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan.

Also they have performed with many great musicians such as conductor Kenichiro Kobayashi and Norichika IImori with Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Sho performer Mayumi Miyata and Ko Ishikawa, Koto performer Chieko Fukunaga, percussioner Mutsuko Fujii, and harpsichord performer Michio Kobayashi. Their singing voice is stereoscopic and full of vitality while keeping its accuracy as machines. Palilalia used in“Ave Maria/Stabat Mater/ Salve regina”composed by Atsuhiko Gondai was woven deeply like tweed and “Furusato eisho” composed by Jouji Yuasa gave you an impression that the singing voice was coming from place to place. With “Pu wijnuej we fyp”, they challenged Xenakis which easily manipulates thickness, antagonism, interspersion and space. With regard to World Choral Symposium, Tajimi Choir joined the lecture by Mr. Nobuaki Tanaka as a model choir at Sydney in Australia in 1996. In World Choral Symposium 2005 in Kyoto, they played at world children's choirs’ festival and also they played five times as a model choir in lectures and seminars. In 2007 they were invited from Asia Cantat and they played Japanese contemporary choral music and “Pu wi jnuej we fyp” by Iannis Xenakis. Tajimi Choir established “Ensemble Sera” which was their orchestra by local musicians. They made opportunities for many people to play with an orchestra. Tajimi Choir conducts more than 10 CD and DVD recordings.

YOKO TSUGE, conductor

Yoko Tsuge learned to command from Nobuaki Tanaka who was the Laureate conductor of Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus. She tackled chorus activities in a school very enthusiastically as a teacher, she was awarded the maximum excellent prize in NHK contest at the year when she became a teacher, won prize for an excellent work in the CBC music contest, and won the gold award of Grossman chorus music competition. Then she was invited to Tajimi Choir as a conductor.

In 1985, she met Nobuaki Tanaka and had him teach the method of command. She was studying about how to make the tone of voice according to the developmental stage of each attraction, and how to play the outstanding pieces of music by understanding deeply that composer's music. Also she was eager to establish not only chorus music but also let many people have opportunities to play with an orchestra, she let Tajimi Choir hold Ensemble Sera which was organized with excellent local musicians.

Yoko Tsuge directed regular performances more than 20 stages of a year. Nobuaki Tanaka visited Tajimi about 8 times once a year for the anniversary concert. It was one of her works to make Tajimi Choir play the works roughly till Tanaka coming. She served "Carmina Burana" "No.9” concerts of the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra by Ken-ichiro Kobayashi and "Matthew passion" by Norichika Iimori as the choir conductor. And she was praised. She sometimes joined the competitions of NHK and Japan Choral Association as a judge and gave lectures. She has continued searching for the way of Japanese chorus with Japanese composers. 

Tajimi Choir 

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