Yuka Takechi

Yuka's works have been performed throughout Europe, Japan, the USA and Russia on occasions such as the International Zagreb Music Biennale to the Tanglewood Music Festival of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Leading orchestras and musicians, such as the London Sinfonietta, the Royal Scottish Symphony, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Tokyo City Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, Bach Collegium Japan have all performed her compositions. Yuka's works have also been broadcast by NHK and BBC3 Music Matters.

Yuka's works incorporating Japanese traditional instruments have been performed by the leading Japanese exponents such as Mayumi Miyata (sho), Sukeyasu Shiba (ryuteki),Yoko Nishi (Koto) and Hidejiro Honjo (Sangen).

She has been awarded numerous prestigious awards in Japan such as The 1st Suntory Music Prize/Keizo Saji Prize for her third orchestral work Loin bien loin premiered by Maestro Kazushi Ono (Opera National de Lyon, France) in 2002, the Kanagawa Cultural Prize (2009) for her orchestral work Eaux Lumieres Temps, commissioned for the Yokohama port opening 150th anniversary.

She received the Japan Contemporary Art Encouragement Prize (2007) for the large scale ritualistic work “Saigyo Mandala” for Gagaku and Shomyo commissioned by the International Kanagawa Arts Festival, whose artistic director is Toshi Ichiyanagi, and the Muramatsu Music Prize.

She was an Artist of the Agency for Cultural Affairs overseas by the Japanese Government and received such awards as the Nomura Cultural Award, the Japan Foundation.

​Yuka taught composition and music theories as a Research Associate Professor at Wakayama University and an invited Lecturer of the Royal Welsh College of Music&Drama in UK 2012-14 and Tokyo University of Arts where she teaches composition and lead the lecture with London based Toki String Quartet in 2012. She was an invited composer and a chair panel at New York Summit organized by Columbia University in 2013.