Profile
Yoshinao KOBAYASHI, born in Japan in 1961, began to play the piano when he was four, and later he learned piano with Prof. Koya Harigai and music composition with Prof. Terumichi Tanaka. In 1984, he received a prize in the 4th composing competition of the Japan Mandolin Union (JMU). He has written many orchestral and chamber works for mandolin instruments. His works are played around the world. His mandolin solo pieces were compulsory pieces for multiple international competitions; e.g., JMU mandolin solo competition, ARTE International Mandolin Festival & Competition, European Mandolin Award of the EMGA 2007, the 1st International solo mandolin competition Luxembourg 2012 etc. He has been composed mandolin pieces intensively with other kinds of instruments such as flute, piano and violin strings.Many works have been published by Joachim-Trekel-Musikverlag (Hamburg, Germany).
Currently, he belongs to the Japan Federation of Composers (JFC) and has presented works for orchestral instruments at many concerts such as "Japanese Composer 2021" and "Asian Music Festival 2022 in Kawasaki". In June 2017, his first individual exhibition of composed works entitled “Trace of point and line music” was held in Kyoto. He has served as a judge at many competition; e.g., all Japan high school guitar mandolin music competition, Japan mandolin solo competition, ARTE International Mandolin Festival & Competition etc. He is a professor at Center for physical and Mental Health, Mie University. He is regularly occupied as a doctor of internal medicine, but music has always played an important role throughout his life. Therefore, he is always working toward a balance between medicine and music.
Main activity history
In March 2024, a clarinet solo piece entitled “Cla・ Cla・ Cla~rinet” was selected through an open call at “IWASE Ryuta Clarinet Recital”, organized by the Contemporary Music Association, and premiered at Bechstein Centrum Tokyo Hall.
In March 2023, “Go West, Go East” was premiered at the concert entitled “JFC Asia+ 2023 ~Works by Lithuanian and Japanese Composers~ held at Muza Kawasaki (Kanagawa). In this work, he attempted to fuse the sounds of the Eastern instrument, the shakuhachi, with the sounds of the Western instruments, the violin and viola (Shaku 8: Reison Kuroda, violin: Mika Hirose, cello: Koya Suzuki).
In March 2022, “Tuk Tuk” for woodwind quintet, violin, and cello was premiered at the Chamber Music Concert of “Asian Music Festival 2022 in KAWASAKI” held at the Muza Kawasaki (conductor: Tomohiro Moriyama).
In March 2021, “Sound Turning Around” was performed at “Japanese Composer 2021 Phidias Trio +α, ~Soundscape Around the Trio~” held at Tokyo Opera City recital hall (Phidias Trio, cla: Ryuta Iwase, vn: Maiko Ito, pf: Erila Kawamura).
For the 28th Japan Digestive Disease Week (JDDW 2020 KOBE) held in Kobe in November 2020, he composed an orchestral piece “Prologue for JDDW2020” along with a string quartet piece "Prologue and Vivo”. He produced a CD containing them, collaborating with Ryo Aoyama (orchestral sound) and Kleines Konzerthaus String Quartet.
In 2019, “Asian Tradition/Asian Contemporary 2019” was held both at Tokyo Music School Sogakudo (Ueno, Tokyo) and Princess Galyani Vadhara Institute of Music (Bangkok, Thailand, PGVIM International Symposium). He conducted his own piece “Sound fluctuating” for clarinet, horn violin and cello both in Tokyo and Bangkok.
In June 2017, the first individual exhibition of his works entitled “Concert of Yoshinao Kobayashi's Works ~Trace of point and line music~” was held at Aoyama Music Memorial Museum Baroque Saal in Kyoto. At this concert, the “Cello Sonata” was premiered by Yasuro Chomei.
In November, he participated in “the Asian Music Festival in Tokyo 2017”, a special event organized by the Asian Confederation of Composers (ACL), where he conducted his chamber orchestra piece “Prayer for Time” at Anyoin temple (Itabashi, Tokyo) (chamber orchestra: Ensemble Kochi).
In January 2015, "Sound blurring" for two cellos was performed by Kenichiro Yasuda and Yasuro Chomei at the "2nd Night of Japanese Composers 2015" held at Suntory Hall's Blue Rose.
In August 2015, “Prayer for Reconstruction” for mandolin orchestra was performed at the 100th anniversary concert of Kobe University mandolin club which was held at the Kobe Arts Center. This piece was composed in 1996, the year after the Huge Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and was premiered in the composed year by Kobe University mandolin club.
In 2014, "Quartet" for mandolin and string trio was performed in Tokyo and Kyoto (mandolin: Takaaki Shibata, violin: Motoko Mito, viola: Rieko Kohno, cello: Yosuke Ozawa), and the piece was included in the CD album entitled “Winter Elegy”. This CD was featured in the May 2014 issue of the magazine Ongaku Gendai.
In June 2024, “Focus On/Off” for string quartet and mandolin orchestra was premiered by Mandolin Orchestra Concordia in Tokyo (conductor: Hisashi Yokozawa, 1st violin: Asa Nakajima, 2nd violin: Maya Fraser, viola; Toshiyuki Akiyama; cello; Yoriko Miyake). This piece was created with the aim of merging the music of points and the music of lines, and the performance produced a unique effect.
In November, “Haiku Suite” for soprano and mandolin (soprano: Chie Nagai, mandolin: Gertrud Weyhofen) was performed in Kassel (Germany). In this performance, the profound world of haiku created by the unique combination of vocal music and mandolin was highly praised.
In February 2013, “Trio” for flute, mandolin, and cello was performed in Tokyo and Kyoto (flute: Yoriko Kasai, mandolin: Takaaki Shibata, cello: Yosuke Ozawa) to be published by Trekel. In August, he took charge of a workshop entitled “Characteristics and Future of Mandolin Music” at the Kobe International Music Festival 2013.
In 2012, “Introduction and Allegro” was selected as the compulsory piece for the 1st Luxembourg International Mandolin Solo Competition held in Luxembourg.
In 2011, “Interaction'' for Mandolin and Violin was premiered by Senza Basso (mandolin; Katsia Prakopchyk; violin; Roland Faber) in Düsseldorf and Wenger (Germany). Two years later, Senza Basso was invited to “the Kobe International Music Festival 2013”, where they performed this work for the first time in Japan.
"Sonata for mandolin solo" was included in the CD entitled "Chronicle" (mandolin: Takaaki Shibata), This CD was selected as a special selection in the April 2011 issue of the magazine Record Geijutsu.
In 2010, he participated in Eurofestival Zupfmusik Bruchsal 2010 (Germany). In this festival, “Aquafishes” for mandolin and mandola was premiered at Bruchsal Castle (mandolin: Takaaki Shibata, mandola: Christian Laier). The work was published by Trekel later and was included in the CD entitled “Ski Blue Flower”, which was released from Germany's ANTES label in 2012.
In 2008, at the 4th International Mandolin Seminar held in Trossingen (Germany), "Pair Wind" (flute: Sachiko Yoshida, mandolin: Susanne Herre) was premiered, which work attempted to fuse oriental flute sounds with Western mandolin sounds.
In 2007, he held "CONCERT 1961" in Kobe collaborating with composers Hidenori Yoshimizu and Hiromitsu Kagajo, each presenting a lecture on his own works and a new work.
In the same year, her “Sonata for Solo Mandolin” was selected as the compulsory piece for the European International Mandolin Competition held in Padras, Greece (the winner was Katsia Prakopchyk).
Participated in the music festival Eurofestival Zupdmusik Bamberg 2006 (Germany).
At the opening concert of this festival, his piece “Mandolin Concerto No. 2” was premiered by Hermano Mandolin Orchestra (conductor: Masaki Kinoshita, mandolin solo: Takaaki Shibata). The performance was a great success, and it was decided that the piece would be published by Trekel the next day.
In 2005, he presented “Research on Yasuo Kuwahara's compositions'' at a workshop of the Kobe International Music Festival 2005.
In 2000, "Three Composers (Yoshinao Kobayashi, Yasuo Kuwahara, Hidenori Yoshimizu)" was held at Izumi Hall in Osaka, and included "Allegro for Concert", "Memory of Saiku" and “Elegia” was performed by ARSNOVA Mandolin Orchestra (current: ARTE MANDOLINISTICA).