Japanese composer Moto Osada’s music has been described as “individual and original” by the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau and “beautiful and extremely strong” by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.  Remarkable for its unique blend of harmonic textures, Mr. Osada’s music often draws on Japanese themes and traditional instruments to augment Western harmonies.  It also frequently incorporates the latest in music technology ranging from electronic equipment to computer-generated sounds.

Mr. Osada’s recent opera Four Nights of Dream, commissioned by the Vadstena Academy, drew immense praise from the press. Based on the classic novel Ten Nights of Dream by Japanese author Natsume Soseki, the opera saw its premiere in Sweden in July 2008.  It prompted Karin Helander of the Svenska Dagbladet to laud:

	Four Nights of Dream is an irresistible mix of Japanese and western influences.  The music is easily accessible, dynamic and often breathtakingly beautiful. The sweep of notes and clipped motifs vary and shift from meditation and frustrated resignation to absurd comedy, suggestive ghostly mystique and metaphysical poetry.
	July 22, 2008

Mr. Osada has composed for a wide array of musical combinations ranging from works for full orchestra to chamber and solo works for various instruments.  He has written extensively for film and television, as well as for the theater and dance media.  Increasingly in demand nationally and internationally, his works have been heard in such countries as the United States, Belgium, Germany, Israel, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Mexico, Argentina, and his native Japan, and in venues ranging from the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC to Novosibirsk Concert Hall in Russia.

Highlights of recent seasons include the world premiere of Duo for cello and percussion, commissioned and premiered by cellist Sumire Kudo of the New York Philharmonic and percussionist Haruka Fujii, at the Juilliard School in July 2009, the world premiere of Sylvan Lay and Pastoral Air for marimba solo, commissioned by prominent marimbist Makoto Nakura, at the Downtown NYC River to River Festival 2007, and a performance of Take the Six for marimba and electronics as part of the Weaving Japanese Sounds concert at New York City’s Tenri Cultural Institute in May 2007.

Of the March 2007 performance of his Kaguyama Dance for viola and piano by the American composer/performer collective counter)induction Allan Kozinn of The New York Times praised:

	…the works, by [Japanese] composers of the last two generations were cosmopolitan and up to date… their works are steeped in color, texture, and visceral power.  Jessica Meyer, the violist and Blair McMillen, the pianist, threw themselves headlong into Moto Osada’s “Kaguyama Dance,” to good effect.  The viola line’s rhythmically sharp edges are first mirrored, then magnified, in the dense piano line, which edges toward jazz in its energy and drive.
	March 13, 2007

In 2006, Mr. Osada was invited to take part in two prestigious residences, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy.  These programs enabled Mr. Osada to focus entirely on composing his chamber opera Four Nights of Dream for the Vadstena Academy.  

Highlights of past seasons include a June 2006 performance of Mifune for viola solo by Paul Neubauer of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and four premieres: In June 2005, Three Bagatelles for violin, cello and piano was premiered on the Weaving Japanese Sounds (Music of Modern Japan) concert series at Yamaha Artist Services’ Piano Salon in New York.  In August 2004 cellist Beata Söderberg performed Mr. Osada’s Meditation for cello solo in Linköping, Sweden.  In February 2004, the noted Katz-Shteinberg Duo premiered Kaguyama Dance at New York’s Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall), and in September 2003, Take the Six was presented to great acclaim at Nagano’s Raisin Hall in Japan.

During the 2004-2005 season, Mr. Osada’s JoHaKyu for cello and piano was presented as part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s distinguished Double Exposure series in New York.  Later, in April 2005, his Take the Six was featured on the Cutting Edge Concerts, also in New York.

Also notable was the April 2003 concert at New York’s Klavierhaus devoted entirely to Mr. Osada’s music and aptly entitled Introducing Moto Osada.  The evening featured JoHaKyu, Mifune, and Atomotium for piano.  (Atomotium was subsequently given an encore in March 2004 as part of Klavierhaus’s Sounds of Modern Japan series.)  Mr. Osada’s music has also been heard in a live radio broadcast of a Katz-Shteinberg Duo recital at the Jerusalem Music Centre in Israel in 2002; Shmuel Katz performed Mifune for viola solo.

A graduate of New York University – he is a three-time winner of the school’s Composition Award (1996, 1997, and 1998) – and the Manhattan School of Music, Mr. Osada’s recent honors include grants from the American Music Center (Composer Assistance Program), the Japan Foundation, ASCAP, the S&R Foundation (S&R Washington Award), and the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music.  Mr. Osada was selected as the winner of the 2009 Call for Scores by the contemporary music ensemble Brave New Works and as a recipient of the 2003 Jerome Composers Commissioning Program by the American Composers Forum.  He has also been awarded residencies at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy.  Mr. Osada currently resides in New York.

Last updated December 2009