Yamada / Satoh / Van Ooijen
Biography Yamada / Satoh / Van Ooijen
Chiyomi Yamada
was born in Fukuoka, Japan. After her graduation from Kunitachi Music College in Tokyo in 1980 she went to The Netherlands to study Baroque music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Marius van Altena and Dr. Rebecca Stewart. Soon she became a member of the Renaissance cappellae of Dr. Stewart and began to give concerts. This early experience has continued to be influential in shaping Miss Yamada's ideas about Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant. In addition she became the vocalist of 'Alba Musica Kyo', a chamber ensemble directed by Toyohiko Satoh. With this group she performed in festivals in The Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Canada. Their programs ranged from medieval to modern. In 1983 Miss Yamada traveled throughout Canada as a music envoy of the Japanese government and in 1985 she gave a concert at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Her particular combination of musicality, intelligence, vocal clarity and delicacy continued to please her various audiences and ensured her acceptance within the world of early music. Since 1985 she has traveled back to Japan regularly, helping to increase the appreciation of her audiences for early music.
Her CD's include the following: 'Two Orphean Masters' (Dowland and Purcell) for the CD company Brain; 'Music in Dejima', 'Love and Musical Drama (early Italian Baroque music) for Entée; 'Works of Toyohiko Satoh' (I and II), 'Landini & his time', 'Machaut & his time', 'Music of Shakespeare' for Channel Classics; 'Dawn to the West' (Japanese songs) for Nostalgia.
Since 2002 Miss Yamada has been living in Japan, where she has been developing a new project on the shared Japanese-European cultural history of the 16th and 17th centuries. In 2005 and 2007 she recorded the CDs 'Music to connect Saikai-Portugal' for the Board of Education in Japan.
Toyohiko Satoh
was born in 1943 in Japan. After his studies in Tokyo, he came to Europe in 1968 to study the lute at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. Since 1970 when he made the world first baroque lute LP, he has recorded extensively for Telefunken and Philips, and since 1990 for Channel Classics for the new solo CD series. Two of them won prizes.
Not only his solo recordings but also more than 50 ensemble recordings brought consistent honours and awards. His formal debut in the Carnegie Recital Hall in 1982 made a profound sensation in The New York Times. He performed in many Festivals around the world. From 1973 through 2004 he was the lute professor at the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag, Holland, and produced many prominent students for all over the world. He frequently gives masterclasses in various countries, such as Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Sweden, the USA, Canada and Japan.
Since 1981 he is also active as a composer. He has performed his compositions in several Festivals, and 2 CD’s with his own compositions have been made also for Channel Classics with his group Alba Musica Kyo. A part of his compositions and his "Method for the Baroque Lute" are published by TREE Edition in Germany and Academia Music in Japan. In 2000 he became the president of LGS-Japan (Lute & Early Guitar Society of Japan) and LGS-Europe. He also is a master of Japanese “tea ceremony” and tries to harmonize it’s philosophy with music.
David van Ooijen
plays solo music and accompanies singers on various lutes, historical guitars and shamisen. He also plays continuo in several early music groups and orchestras. He appeared in the festivals of Utrecht, Flanders, Wratislawa, Osnabrück, Dubrovnik, Melk, Cambrils, Seviqc Brezice, Gijón and Tehran. He recorded some 30 CDs and in 1991 BBC radio made solo recordings of him. In 1998 he won an early music prize in Holland and in 2000 and 2009 he was invited to spend a month in Hirado, Japan, as artist in residence. Here he has come to love traditional Japanese music and learned to play the shamisen. After making a CD with Japanese songs with soprano Chiyomi Yamada, accompanied on an original 19th century guitar, David has toured Japan three times in 2003 and 2008. In 2009 David returned to Hirado. In 2004 and 2005 CDs with altus Sytse Buwalda reached the number one spot in the classical charts of the Dutch national radio and David’s CD with fellow lutenist Michiel Niessen, featuring the first recording of the complete lute duets of sixteenth century lute virtuoso Giovanni Antonio Terzi, received a raving review in the prestigious Early Music Magazine. In 2007 David played during the baptism service of Princess Ariane, daughter of the Dutch Crown Prince Willem Alexander and his wife Máxima.
