@ United Nation
@ United Nation

Dr. Rica Narimoto: composer :

Born in Wakayama, Japan, she completed her M.A. and Doctor of music at Aichi University of the Arts graduating at the top of her class and receiving the University's prestigious Kuwabara Prize. She is the first person to have received a doctoral degree in the field of composition at that university. She studied with Takayuki Morikawa, Akihiko Matsui, Bin Kaneda, Keiki Okasaka, and Tomoyuki Hisatome, and after graduation she took several courses given by Philippe Manoury and Joji Yuasa. Her music has been performed in many countries including Japan, the Netherlands (during the Gaudeamus Music Week), Egypt (The Alexandrina Contemporary Music Biennale), Ukraine (the International Festival of Modern Art, Two Days and Two Nights/2D2N), Germany, France, Austria, the United States, Canada and Finland. She has received several awards including the Irino Prize , the Asian Cultural Council Individual Fellowship Award(USA), the third prize at Iron Composer Competition(USA) and the Okuwa Cultural Encouragement Prize. She was invited from Asian Cultural Council as a fellow and lived in New York for researching about American contemporary music and art in 2011. At the end of her stay in NYC, she had a highly claimed recital, "Portrait Concert: Rica Narimoto", featuring her own compositions, some of which were performed by herself. Her work combines contemporary music composition techniques with the structures of the 17th Century Japanese Itchu-Bushi form in order to create abstractions of space and time and produce a unique musical signature. She is currently a professor in Aichi University of the Arts, and is a lecturer in Kinjo Gakuin University and Nagoya University of the Arts.