NOMURA Makoto

野村誠

Biography

Other exhibits:
9 pieces for piano "Arts Maebashi" 4, Two persons
9 pieces for piano "Arts Maebashi" 5, late summer in silence
9 pieces for piano "Arts Maebashi" 9, An Old Woman in Arrondissement of Temple

Biography

Born 1968 in Aichi Prefecture. Currently resides in Kyoto.

A composer, pianist, and keyboard harmonicist, Nomura began to compose music when he was a second grader in elementary school. In 1990, he formed the band pou-fou, whose members co-composed improvisational music. Graduating from the Department of Science of Kyoto University in 1992, Nomura moved to the U.K. after being awarded a grant from the British Council in 1994. In 2005, he participated in the Yokohama Triennale "Art Circus (Jumping from the Ordinary)" and supervised the NHK TV musical program "Ainote" in 2006. He has collaborated with many visual artists and dancers. Nomura has been awarded prizes such as the JCC ART AWARD's prize for the best contemporary music in 1996 and the first Asahi Beer Art Award. His publications include Ongaku no Mirai o Sakkyokusuru [Composing the Future of Music] (2015, Shobunsha), Rojinhomu ni Ongaku ga Hibiku [Music Resonates in Nursing Homes] (2006, Shobunsha), and CDs such as Shogi Kokyokyoku no Tanjo [The Birth of Shogi Symphony] (2005, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media) and Nomura Piano (2013, Tontuu Records) among others. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Japan Association of Composers for Sumo Hearing Arts and serves as the Community Program Director of the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra.

Footnote

What if a still life painting were to begin to beat a rhythm? What if a melody were to flow out like wind from a landscape painting brimming with light? In 2013, Nomura held a workshop at Arts Maebashi in which each participant brought an instrument and played it looking at a painting from the museum's collection as if it were a sheet of music. These instruments made diverse sounds and each participant focused on different elements of the painting from others, such as lines, colors, and the thickness of paint. These sounds were notated so that they were played on the piano and participants could appreciate them together with the painting afterwards.
Each sound was a result of a collaborative process of the participants' acts of viewing art. While viewing the same work of art, you can add the sound that only you hear. There appears to exist here something like the roots of a communality inherent in the act of listening.

Installation View

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Right:
NOMURA Makoto, From the series 9 pieces for piano "Arts Maebashi" 5: Late Summer in Silence, 2013
musical score, sound, 1 minute 23 seconds

FUKUDA Tentaro, Late Summer in Silence, 1961
oil on canvas, 91.1×73.3cm

Left:
NOMURA Makoto, From the series 9 pieces for piano "Arts Maebashi" 9: An Old Woman in Arrondissement of Temple, 2013
musical score, sound, 35 seconds

KONDO Yoshio, An Old Woman in Arrondissement of Temple, 1965
oil on canvas, 52.7×45.5cm