Composing for Ninagawa: A Talk by Yasuhiro Kasamatsu

Yasuhiro Kasamatsu is Japan’s acclaimed composer who has a wide-ranging repertoire from chamber music, to opera, to musicals. However what has made him stand out the most is his involvement in theatre productions, in particular the staging of the works by Yukio Ninagawa who sadly passed away in 2016. Keeping close contact with the theatre giant, Kasamatsu composed music pieces for Ninagawa’s “Hamlet”, “Pericles” and “The Twelfth Night” among many others, which played a significant role towards their stage success. His credits also extend to film and TV dramas such as Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 1998 film “After Life”.

In this special talk, Kasamatsu will share his insights into his creative process when composing music, as well as reflecting on the prolific partnership between him and Ninagawa. With representative pieces on board, he will also discuss the way his music attuned to Ninagawa’s spellbinding stages, helping convey the narratives and how it complimented the mood and flow.

This will provide a rare opportunity to uncover the hidden stories of the Ninagawa production process from a musical perspective which you might have never witnessed before.