Paul Chihara

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Paul Seiko Chihara (b. July 9, 1938) is an American composer.

Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent much of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho. He studied composition at Cornell University, and with Nadia Boulanger. He was the first composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Neville Marriner, and is currently on the music faculty of UCLA, where he has been off and on since 1966.

His music reflects interest in a variety of musical styles, and often shows influence from Asian music and culture. He sometimes incorporates quotations and stylistic borrowings from jazz standards, folk song, and the classical repertoire. He has composed music in a variety of forms, including ballets, musicals, symphonies, choral and chamber music. His (1980) ballet The Tempest, commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet is the first full-length American ballet.[1][2]

His close connection with music for dramatic forms extends into film and television for which he has written nearly 100 scores. His first film score was for Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 (1974), and came at the point that he decided to leave academia to pursue a living as a composer. His exit from the university and entrance into film music also produced a change in his concert music. It was at this point that he moved away from the 12-tone and freely chromatic styles he had employed up to then, and embraced a more tonal style.

Chihara's notable students include Cynthia Tse Kimberlin.

[edit] Selected works

Magnificat (1965)
Logs double bass (1966)
Driftwood (string quartet) (1967)
Branches (2 bassoons & percussion) (1968)
Willow Willow (flute, tuba & percussion) (1968)
Forest Music (orchestra) (1970)
Windsong (cello & orchestra) (1971)
Redwood (viola & percussion) (1971)
Ave Maria - Scarborough Fair (6 male voices) (1971)
Ceremony I (oboe, 2 celli, double bass & percussion) (1972)
Grass (double bass & orchestra) (1972)
Ceremony III (flute & orchestra) (1973)
Ceremony IV (orchestra) (1973)
Ceremony II (amplified flute, 2 amplified celli & percussion) (1974)
Elegy (piano trio) (1974)
Piano Trio (1974)
Guitar Concerto (1975)
Symphony no.1 "Symphony in Celebration" (Ceremony V) (1975)
Shinju (Lovers’ Suicide) (ballet after Chikamatsu) (1975)
Missa Carminum (8 voices) (1975)
The Beauty of the Rose is in its Passing (bassoon, 2 horns, harp, & percussion) (1976)
String Quartet (Primavera) (1977)
Mistletoe Bride (1978)
The Infernal Machine revised as Oedipus Rag (musical after Jean Cocteau) (1978-80)
The Tempest (ballet, after Shakespeare) (1980)
Concerto for String Quartet & Orchestra ("Kisses Sweeter than Wine") (1980)
Sinfonia concertante (9 instruments) (1980)
Saxophone Concerto (1981)
Symphony no.2 "Birds of Sorrow" (1981)
Sequoia (string qartet & tape) (1984)
Clarinet Trio (Shogun Trio) (1989)
Shogun, the Musical (1990)
Forever Escher (saxophone qartet & string qartet) (1995)
Minidoka (Reminiscences of ...) (ensemble & tape) (1996)
Sonata (viola & piano) (1997)
Sonata (viola & piano) (1998)
Minidoka (chorus, percussion & tape) (1998)
Double Concerto for Violin, Clarinet & Orchestra (1999)
Clouds (orchestra) (2001)
Amatsu Kaze (soprano and five instruments) (2002)
An Afternoon on the Perfume River (orchestra) (2004)
Trio Nostalgico (2004)