Beyond the Sky and the Sea - Works for Oboe d'amore Front Cover

Beyond the Sky and the Sea - Works for Oboe d'amore

Maki Mitani & Keiko Takashima

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Dedicated to my dear friend Maki Mitani

Maki Mitani and I both graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, where we were two grades apart, but for some reason, we never got to meet each other in school. I first met her four years ago in August 2017, when we spent two entire days together judging a regional competition.
We found out by chance that our children happened to be enrolled in the same university as well. This allowed us to hit it off immediately and chat about many different topics.

I believe Maki must have encountered many challenges in her life as she was going about her activities as an oboist with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra while raising a family and taking care of two children at the same time. However, it always seemed to me that she was enjoying everything that came her way. Even after we had finished recording six pieces in October 2020, there were still many things we wanted to do together. For this reason, I still cannot believe that Maki, who had said that she would be admitted to the hospital to focus on recovering from her illness, passed away in February of the following year, never to return again.
While I still have many regrets, I hope these recordings that Maki has left behind can be shared with as many people as possible. I would like to dedicate these works to Maki, her parents, her husband, her son, and her daughter.

Artist Profile

  • Maki Mitani

    高知県出身。東京藝術大学音楽学部器楽科を卒業。ＮＨＫ洋楽新人オーディションに合格、第18回ＪＤＲステップフォワードコンサート出演。ノースウエスタン大学スペシャルスチューデントコースを修了、渡米中、シカゴシビックオーケストラのオーディションに合格し、1年間オーボエ奏者として演奏活動する。 オーボエを小島葉子、レイ・スティルの両氏に師事、イングリッシュ・ホルンをグローバー・シュルツ氏に師事。 新星日本交響楽団副首席オーボエ奏者を経て、東京フィルハーモニー交響楽団オーボエ奏者として多数のソロコンサートや映画・アニメ、音楽番組出演など幅広い演奏活動を行う。2021年2月8日、逝去。

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  • Keiko Takashima

    Keiko Takashima was born in Takamatsu, Kagawa in 1962, and grew up mainly in Hiroshima. She began taking piano lessons at the age of four and enjoyed chorus as a club activity in junior and senior high school. She started learning harmony and composition theory while she was in high school, and enrolled in the composition department at Tokyo University of the Arts of Music in 1982. After graduation, in the wake of providing new arrangements of YUYAKE-KOYAKE (Sunset) and WARABE-UTA (nursery rhymes) as encore pieces for the Paris Trombone Quartet for their first tour to Japan, Ms. Takashima has written many works including trombones in them. Her repertoire for trombone quartet are PASSEPIED, MEMORIES, SQUARE DANCE, THREE ANCIENT CAPITALS, CROSSING PATHS, SONG OF HOMETOWN, SONG OF FOUR SEASONS, DOGWOOD PRAYER and BEYOND THE HILL OF SAND. She also wrote for solo trombone and piano: FANTASY ON ITSUKI LULLABY, which is included in Mr. Michel Becquet's solo album, BREEZE IN THE HEARTS, BLOOM IN THE WORLD, IN THE NIGHT OF SILENCE, and HEAR THE SPRING CALLING. Her choral works are TOKI-SOBA (for mixed chorus) based on Japanese comic storytelling, LOVE IN KYOTO (suite for female chorus, lyrics by Madoka Mayuzumi), FLOWER TIDING (lyrics by Urara Takahashi). Composition for piano PIANO RECITAL STORY is also on sale at PITINA Musset (music delivery service on the Internet). Ms. Takashima also wrote the fanfares for the opening and closing ceremonies at The National Sports Festival, held in Hiroshima in 1998. She is a regular member of the Piano Teachers' National Association of Japan.

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