What would it be like to make a living using foreign language skills as a freelance professional? Missa Takahashi, an interpreter and translator of English, French and Italian, shares how she established her career, expanded her work and deepened her understanding of language and ...

Pianist Tomoko Yazawa always thinks about her music with the future in mind. However, for her latest album, “Playing in the Dark,” she made a rare diversion into the past — specifically, France at the end of the 19th century. Although Yazawa was classically ...

Opening 2013 on a cultured note, the Slovak Chamber Orchestra (SCO) tours Japan from Jan. 5 through Jan. 18. Founded by violinist and then Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra concertmaster Bohdan Warchal (1930-2000) in 1960, SCO has developed into one of the most popular groups in ...

While much has changed since Japan last hosted the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in 1964 — a year that symbolized the nation’s achievement of reconstruction after World War II through the hosting of the meeting and the ...

When the final chord of the fiery Spanish-flavored “El Camino Real” by U.S. composer Alfred Reed echoed throughout Suntory Hall, it was a great moment for 16-year-old Mayuko Kawai. “I was thrilled by the audience’s stormy applause,” she says. Kawai wasn’t in the crowd, ...

Many artists that watched the destruction of the Great East Japan Earthquake a year ago have said in media interviews that they’ve struggled with how to interpret the disaster. The taiko (drum) troupe at the International Christian University is no different. The students titled ...

The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra faced a setback this year after Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall was severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, effectively leaving the musicians homeless. When Muza’s ceiling caved in, most of the acoustics-enhancing materials, lighting and air ...

Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s (1841-1904) symphonies, such as Symphony No. 9 “From the New World,” are well known to Japanese audiences. However, his operatic works have not been performed that often in Japan. This month, the opera “Rusalka” will be staged at the New ...

Slovakian cellist Ludovit Kanta plans to celebrate his 20th anniversary in Japan with a special concert in his adopted hometown of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. Born in Bratislava, 53-year-old Kanta studied cello at Bratislava Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Then, after ...

As survivors from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sat in evacuation centers across Iwate Prefecture on March 19, support came from a surprising source. Amid the steady flow of information from the radio, a children’s choir began singing. The song they sang was ...

Since the March 11 earthquake, it’s been difficult for the classical music scene, with many venues having to cancel or postpone performances. Amid this period of readjustment, world-renowned conductor Zubin Mehta is returning to Japan to conduct a Tohoku-Kanto earthquake charity concert to be ...