Kaoru Wada
Japanese Guest
Kaoru Wada is active in a wide range of musical fields, including anime, film, television, theatre, and events, and has been involved in the musical side of well-known animes.
He was born in 1962 in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.
In 1981, Wada Kaoru entered the Composition Department at Tokyo College of Music, where he studied composition under Akira Ifukube and conducting under maestro Yasuhiko Shiozawa. While at the College, he won the Japan Symphony Foundation Award. His work, Folkloric Dance Music for Symphonic Wind Ensemble, was selected as Theme Composition [Subject Work] of the All Japan Band Contest in 1984.
After graduating, Wada moved to Europe, where he observed the activities and operations of the orchestras of several nations, particularly in Amsterdam. In 1986, his Three Fragments for Orchestra was debuted by Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orkest, and was an enormous success. The following year, it was performed again at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as a piece on the Program of the Regular Season Concert of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1988, the premiere of Folkloric Dance Suite for Orchestra was performed in
Sweden by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (MSO). The work was performed again
thereafter in many countries, including in the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom,
Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Norway, the United States, and Japan. The work was released worldwide in 1990 on the Grammaphone Bis label.
Following his return to Japan, Wada was in charge of film music and accompanying music for animations, including Inuyasha, as well as for movies, television, video, CD, dramas, and the stage. In 1995, his music for the Shochiku film “Crest of Betrayal” was awarded a Japan Academy Prize.
Along with these numerous activities, Wada has also published many works for
Japanese indigenous instruments, plus works that use Japanese folklore and folksongs as motifs. He has published numerous works commissioned from Japan and abroad,
including from the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gunma Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and several others. In November 2003, he conducted his first concert dedicated solely to his own works, The World of Kaoru Wada in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, with joint sponsorship by the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.
Main Works
[Orchestra]
• Folkloric Dance Suite for orchestra
• TEN-CHI-JIN symphonic poem for orchestra
• KAIKYOU symphonic impression for orchestra
• ITO-DAMA for Tsugaru-shamisen and orchestra
• TOH-KA'' for cello and orchestra
• KI-SHIN fragment concertante for Japanese taiko drums and orchestra
• GAZOKU Ballad for Solo Violin, Harp and Strings
• DASSAI SYMPHONY 〜MIGAKI〜
[Soundtracks of anime series]
• 3x3 Eyes
• 3x3 Eyes Seima Densetsu
• Ace Attorney
• InuYasha series and movies
• Battle Angel
• Casshern Sins
• D.Gray-man
• Dragon Quest Retsuden: Roto no Monshō
• Gegege no Kitaro (1996-1998)
• Ghost Stories (Gakkou no Kaidan)
• Gilgamesh
• Harlock Saga
• Ijiwaru Baasan
• Iron Leaguer
• Mushiking
• Kikaider 01
• Kindaichi Case Files
• Mars Daybreak
• Ninja Scroll
• Play Ball
• Princess Tutu
• Puzzle & Dragons
• Record of Lodoss War second TV series
• Ranma 1/2
• Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas
• Samurai 7
• Silent Möbius Motion Pictures 1-2
• Strange Dawn
• Tekkaman Blade
• To Heart
• Yashahime : Princess Half-Demon