Born in 1961 in Tokyo. Her musical education began with piano lessons when she was four years old and formal composition lessons from the age of ten. After studying French literature at Aoyama Gakuin University, she entered Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1982 to study composition with Akira Miyoshi. During four years of study there, she won several major awards in Japan and Europe for her compositions, including prizes at the Viotti and Trieste competitions and the Japan Symphony Foundation Award.
In 1986, with the aid of a French government scholarship, she moved to Paris to study composition with Tristan Murail and work at ircam as an intern. In 1987 she was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize at the International Music Week in Amsterdam for her piano concerto Anamorphose, and in 1988 she received the Muramatsu Prize. She studied with Luciano Berio in Florence in 1990-91 with funds from the Nadia Boulanger Foundation and a Japanese Government Scholarship.
Her music received the attention of a wider audience and has been presented and broadcast around the world. She was commissioned, among others, by the festival of Radio France 'Presence' and the bbc Symphony Orchestra. Her recent pieces include: Echo Canyon for 14 instruments (1995), Song of Songs for cello and tape (1996), Night Bird for alto saxophone and electronics (1997) and Frozen Horizon for seven instruments (1998).

Song of Songs. I have attempted to project the Song of Songs of the Old Testament, a sensual song of love, onto the sound of cello and computer. My intention was to weave colour and scent into the sound while blending the ancient story and today's technology. The sound of the cello is consistently gentle and tender.
This work was commissioned by Yutaka Fujishima and the Xebec Hall. It was first performed by Ryoichi Fujimori in Mito, Japan, on 10 November 1996.
Karen Tanaka