Karola Obermüller was born in 1977 near Darmstadt, Germany. From the age of six, she took music lessons at the “Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt,” first on piano, then on cello, and later in composition and theory. She also studied ear training with cord Meijering. In 1996 she passed her Abitur (the equivalence of A-levels) at the “Lichtenbergschule Darmstadt” and began to study composition at the “Meistersinger-Konservatorium Nürnberg” with Volker Blumenthaler resulting in such pieces as “Streichquintett 1997” (String quintet 1997) for two violins, viola, violoncello and double-bass and “Fünf Wutfetzen” (Five scraps of fury) for piano solo (1998). From 1997-98 she also studied philosophy at the “Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.” Obermüller participated in “Tage Neuer Musik 1999” (Festival of Contemporary Music) in Nürnberg with the first performance of her Mini-Opera “Mein Name ist Urlappi” (My name is Urlappi). Since then she has written “...incalzando...” for cor anglais and organ (1999/00); “Musik für Blockflöte, Harfe und Cembalo” (Music for recorder, harp and harpsichord) (1999/00); “Five scents of RED” for orchestra (2000); and “Einseitige Dialoge” (one-sided dialogues), three songs based on poems by Gabriele Strassmann for mezzosoprano and piano (2000).
















































Minoru MIKI - (MARIMBA SPIRITUAL - FOR MAIRMBA SOLO) - was born in Tokushima, Japan in1930 and graduated from Tokyo National University of Music in composition. He founded Pro Musica Nipponia in 1964 and served as Artistic Director for 20 years, leading the way in contemporary Japanese instrumental music and producing over 160 performances abroad in his efforts to internationalize traditional Japanese instruments. Prizes include the Grand Prize in Japan's 1970 National Arts Festival for his disk The Music of Minoru Miki, and the Prize of Excellence in the 1979 Festival for Minoru Miki- Keiko Nosaka: Music for 20-string koto which they invented and developed. In 1975, he wrote his first opera Shunkin-Sho and won the Giraud Opera Prize. Miki was awarded the Cultural Prize of Tokushima Prefecture in 1991 and an honorable Purple Ribbon Metal in 1994.

In 1979, the opera An Actor's Revenge, was commissioned by the English Music Theatre and world premiered in London. Another commssion, Kyu-no-Kyoku (Symphony for Two Worlds) which combines Japanese instruments with a symphony orchestra, was commissioned by the Leipzig Gewandhous Orchestra for its 1981 bicentennial celebration, conducted by Kurt Masur (American premiere: New York Philharmonic, 1994). Other commissions include Miki's 1985 opera Joruri, the third in a trilogy on the theme of Japan's Edo Period, commissioned and premiered by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, which also premiered Miki's latest work, the opera Tale of Gengji, based on Lady Murasaki Shikibu's (ca. 1000 A.D.) epic novel, also premiered by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in September 2000 and reviewed by the The Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Miki's score was an atmospheric masterpiece, its style Western but with an unsettled tonality recalling Debussy and Britten, a modern work that seems absolutely faithful to its ancient poetic source."

Miki's works are not limited to Japanese and Western instruments. In 1993, Orchestra Asia (ORA) was founded combinding Japanese, Chinese, and Korean instruments for which Miki composed the "folk symphony" Den Den Den as well as Loulan as a Dream and Pipa Concerto. The Japanese instrumental section of ORA branched off to become the Japan Ensemble(ORA-J) in 1998 under the direction of Miki.

Miki's international repertory includes compositions for orchestra, including Symphony from Life, Marimba Concerto, Beijing Requiem, Z Concerto, Mai, ballet suite From the Land of light; chamber works such as String Quartet,Piano Trio, Autumn Fantasy; choral pieces like Requiem, Jodo, Kurudando, Taro; song collections like Noharauta, Flowers' Story, and cinema scores like well-known L'empire de sons. His percussion works like Time for Marimba and Marimba Spiritual in particular have became part of instrumental repertories world wide. Miki Minoru currently serves as a Director of the Japan Federation of Composers. He is a visiting professor at Shikoku University.





Born in Tokushima, Japan in 1962, Yuriko Hase KOJIMA holds BFA in piano from Osaka College of Music, BM in composition from Boston Conservatory, and MA and DMA (2000) in composition from Columbia University. She studied composition with Tristan Murail, Jonathan Kramer, John Clement Adams and Isao Matsushita; computer/electronic music with Brad Garton and Art Kreiger; piano with Niels Ostbye and Jung-Ja Kim, among many others.

As a student, she was given many awards and prizes, including Summa Cum Laude with Arthur T. Whitney Award for Highest Scholastic Achievement and Roger Sessions Composition Award from Boston Conservatory, and Andrew Mellon Fellowships and Rapaport Composition Prize from Columbia University, where she taught music courses until 1998. In 1997, she was nominated for a composition award by American Academy of Arts and Letters, which she gave up because of her visa status in the US.

 Her music expands from contemporary European musical idiom to Asian musical aesthetics, combining instruments from different part of the world, including forefront computer music techniques. Her works have been broadcasted by NHK-FM, Japan, and presented at various international festivals and conferences, such as ISCM World Music Days in Luxembourg, ACL Asian Music Week in Yokohama, International Computer Music Conference in Greece, Fontainebleau Summer Music Festival in France, First International Guitar Festival in Mexico, performed by ensembles such as Ensemble Modern (Germany), Pearls Before Swine Experience (Sweden), and North/South Consonance (USA).

Ms. Kojima has been a member of International Computer Music Association and Japan Federation of Composers, by whom her piano trio has been published (JFC-9807). Since 1999, she has been a faculty member at Toho Gakuen College School of Music and Senzoku Gakuen College in Tokyo, and continues composing and doing researches on musical aesthetics.








































Kurt Stallmann obtained his Ph.D. in Music Composition from Harvard University where his primary teachers included Mario Davidovsky and Bernard Rands. He has freelanced as a pianist, served on the faculty at the Boston Conservatory where he developed a course relating music and choreography, and founded the electronic music studio at the Longy School of Music. Groups throughout the United States including the New Millenium Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, Cleveland New Music Associates, and the Aspen Contemporary Chamber Players have performed his music. As a fellow, he has attended the Aspen Music Festival and the Wellesley Composers Conference. Recently completed work includes Episodes for String Quartet (winner of the Blodgett Competition) premiered by the Mendelssohn String Quartet and a work for interactive electronics on the Composers in Red Sneakers series. He looks forward to writing a new work for the CrossSound Festival in Alaska(summer 2001).










































Composer and saxophonist NODA Ryo - (PHOENIX - FOR BARI SAX SOLO) - was born in 1948 in Amagasaki Japan. He studied with O. Kita and A. Sakaguchi in Japan before he moved to the United States to study saxophone with Fred L. Hemke and composition with W. L. Karlins. From the U.S. he moved to the Bordeaux Conservatory in France where he studied with Jean-Marie Londeix and M. F. Lambezat. Prizes include a laureate from the Osaka College of Music, a Premier Prix for his work on the saxophone, and the Prix d’Honeur from the City of Bordeaux, in addition to the SACEM Prize for composition. Noda has written several chamber works and continues his career as a performer with concerts in Europe, the USA and Japan, with a “resolutely contemporary reperoire.”
BUN-CHING LAM- (RUN - FOR PIPA SOLO) - Was born in the Macao region of China in 1954. She began studying piano at the age of seven and gave her first public solo recital at fifteen. In 1976, she received a B.A. degree in piano performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She then accepted a scholarship from the University of California at San Diego, where she studied composition with Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros, and earned a Ph.D. in 1981. In the same year, she was invited to join the music faculty of the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where she taught until 1986. A winner of the Rome Prize (1991), Lam has also been awarded first prizes at the Aspen Music Festival, the Northwest Composer's Symposium, and the highest honor at the Shanghai Music Competition, which was the first internationa composers' contest to take place in China. She has also been a recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest Commissioning Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, King County Arts Commission and Seattle Arts Commission. She was in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center. Most recently, she received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council for a three -month study trip to Japan, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her current projects include the chamber opera "Wenji" supported by the International Collaborative Project of Meet the Composer, and commissions from Chamber Music America and the New Jersey Symphony. Ms. Lam's orchestral works have been performed by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, Women's Philharmonic, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Holland, and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Her compositions have been featured in music festivals around the world such as the Bang on a Can (New York), New Music America (Los Angeles), Tokyo Summer Festival, Pacific Sounding (Japan), Hong Kong Arts Festival, ISCM World Music Days (Hong Kong), Steirische Herbst (Austria), and the 24 Heures Communication (Belgium). She was a composer in residence at the America Dance Festival, the Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East. She is currently on the Board of Director for the American Composers Orchestra, and has served on the Advisory boards of the New York Foundation for the Arts, Composer's Forum and the Pauline Oliveros Foundation. In 1997, Bun-Ching Lam taught at Bennington College in the Spring Semester, and served as a Visiting Professor in Composition at the School of Music, Yale University in the Fall. She now lives and works in New York. Her music has been recorded on CRI, Tzadik, Nimbus, Koch International Classics, Sound Aspect and Tellus.