Description

Baritone Teru Yoshihara, a hopeful talent in the Japanese singing world, won a first prize in the traditional nihon kakyoku concours, the "Japanese Song Competition," as a young singer at the age of 26.
He prevailed over more than 200 applicants in both the first selection round and the second round with the highest score ahead of the competition. In the final round, all jury members voted unanimously for him. Because I had to cast my vote at the same time as a jury member in the composition section, I was unfortunately unable to follow his singing with my own ears, but all the judges who had heard him told me enthusiastically that they had "never been so moved by a song performance before".
Only afterwards, at the concert of the prize winners, I was able to hear Teru Yoshihara's singing for myself. How beautiful his Japanese language sounds! What a varied expression, poetic, soulful! It goes without saying that Japanese people can sing Japanese songs, but in reality this is anything but easy.
Often a residue of immaturity remains in the expression and understanding of the poetic text. It is different with Teru Yoshihara: for him the connection of poetic text and music is not a matter of course, but a necessary task.
Tokyo, October 2011, Ryôsuke HATANAKA, composer and baritone