The Contemporary Music Series is a lecture series in which a currently active composer or performer discusses a variety of aspects concerning contemporary music. The objective of the series is to create an opportunity for wider understanding of the contemporary music genre by having the composers and performer themselves speak about some of the concepts behind their work and their methodology of composing or performing. Some lectures have been conducted along with a mini-performance.

The second installment of the series focused on the composer Miwa Masahiro. Using computers, Miwa indexes and restructures already existing music and texts to compose and perform his work in real time. He is a composer who is continually pursuing new possibilities in contemporary art. Since Miwa returned to Japan two years ago, his appearances in magazines and elsewhere have been relatively few. Despite this, there was an extremely good turnout for his lecture. Some members of the audience had come from as far away as Hiroshima and Saitama. From the wide range of ages represented, including those in their teens to those in their 60s, it was evident that a great demand for this type of event exists.

The lecture began with an outline of Miwa's career and work until the present. Rather than study at a college of music in Japan, Miwa was taught the importance of classical music by Isan Yun, a native Korean composer living in Berlin. He went on to explain the origins and special characteristics of his music. After which, he used CDs and videos to introduce sections from several of his works.

Next, Miwa had a dialogue with Fujishima Yutaka. Fujishima, a psychologist, is also a music producer and was one of the first people to introduce Miwa's work in Japan. As he offered his commentary on Miwa's music, Fujishima asked insightful questions that brought out many instructive points concerning the composer's music.

Finally, Miwa performed a new work entitled "Silhouette of Words, or Alleluia based on "A's" text." This marked the first time that Miwa has premiered a new composition since his return to Japan. Miwa gave a thoroughly satisfying performance in terms of both length and content.
(Akiko Fujii)