Taro Hakase

Taro Hakase (葉加瀬 太郎, Hakase Tarō, born January 23, 1968 in Suita, Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese musician who specialises as a violinist and composer.

Biography

Career

He is best known internationally for playing the violin on Celine Dion's song "To Love You More" which appears on the US edition of her Let's Talk About Love album. With the success of the song, Hakase went on a nationwide promotional tour making television appearances and also went on tour with Dion to perform the song during her 1996-1997 Falling into You Tour and her 1998-1999 Let's Talk About Love Tour as guest violinist. When Dion began her two years off to have her son Rene Charles, Hakase continues his music career on his own. In 2006, to celebrate 10 years of his success, Hakase reunited with Dion in Las Vegas, Nevada during a performance of her show A New Day... to perform "To Love You More".

He performed "Addio monti (I promessi sposi)" on the 2007 Ennio Morricone tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone, and also co-composed the album Symphonic Poem "Hope" with Yuji Toriyama, a collection of themes used in promotional videos for Final Fantasy XII.

In his native Japan, his song "Another Sky" is All Nippon Airways' theme song , while "Color Your Life" is Shinsei Bank's theme song .

On July 10, 2013, it was announced that he featured in Daesung from BIGBANG's song "I Love You".

Personal life

His wife is Japanese actress Mayuko Takata and they lived together in London, England.

Discography

• "Natural High" (November 21, 1997, with Toshi)
• Canary (April 22, 1998, with Toshi)
• "BEN" (May 21, 1997)
• "watashi" (May 21, 1997)
• "Brazil" (November 21, 1997)
• "髪結い伊三次 Original Sound Track" (May 21, 1999)
• "So Nice(SUMMER SAMBA)" (August 21, 1999)
• "DUETS" (October 21, 1999)
• "タンゴ・ノスタルジア Tango Nostalgia" (August 30, 2000)
• "VIOLINISM～ACOUSTIC BEST～" (September 1, 2000)
• "Endless Violin" (September 5, 2001)
• "THE Best Track" (August 21, 2002)
• "VIOLINISM II" (October 2, 2002)
• "Traveling Notes" (October 8, 2003)
• "Migration" (November 27, 2003)
• "What a Day..." (November 15, 2004)
• "Der Wunder～葉加瀬太郎 meets 松本零士～" (November 25, 2004)
• "VIOLINISM with Love" (October 5, 2005)
• "交響詩「希望」Symphonic Poem 'Hope'" (Single) (March 1, 2006)
• "THE BEST OF MOZART SELECTED BY TARO HAKASE" (May 3, 2006)
• "Sweet Melodies～TARO plays HAKASE～" (September 6, 2006)
• "SONGS" (July 4, 2007)
• "Classical Tuning" (September 10, 2008)
• "The Best Track" (September 2, 2009)
• "My Favorite Songs" (September 9, 2009)
• "EMOTIONISM" (September 29, 2010)
• "THE BEST OF TARO HAKASE" (August 10, 2011)
• "WITH ONE WISH" (November 7, 2012)
• "JAPONISM" (August 21, 2013)

External links

• Taro Hakase official website (Japanese)
• Taro Hakase official website (Korean)