Akira Nishimura

Akira Nishimura
(b Osaka, 8 Sept 1953). Japanese composer. He studied composition and theory to postgraduate level at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

In 1977 he won the first of his numerous prizes, winning both the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition with Heterophony for string quartet (1975) and the Luigi Dallapiccola Composition Award with Mutazioni (1977). In 1980 Kecak (1979) was selected as the best work at the International Rostrum of Composers, and he won awards at the ISCM World Music Days with Ode for Ekstasis (1981) in 1982, then in 1984, 1988 and 1990. The Otaka Prize was awarded to him in 1988 for Heterophony for two pianos and orchestra (1987), and in 1992 and 1993. He was composer-in-residence of the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (1993–4) and of the Tokyo SO (1994–7).

Nishimura principally employs heterophony, a characteristic device of Asian traditional music, thereby subtly transforming the intervals, rhythm and melody of his dense multi-layered textures. Though similar to the ‘micropolyphony’ of Ligeti, an Asian perspective informs his technique. Some works are heterophonic melodically, such as Heterophony (1975), and some rhythmically, as in Kecak; the superimposition of trills, tremolos and harmonics contributes to the more complex texture of his later works. Further information is given in K.-M. Hinz: ‘Alle Töne sind die Stimme Buddhas: Akira Nishimura – ein Porträt’, MusikTexte, no.60 (1995), 43–8 and in K. Hori, ed.: Nihon no sakkyoku nijusseiki [Japanese compositions in the 20th century] (Tokyo, 1999), 194–6.