Biography

Chikako Morishita is a Japanese composer and pianist. Her work has been performed by Tokyo Geidai philharmonic, Vanemuise Symphony Orchestra, ELISION ensemble, ensemble Ascolta, OKEANOS ensemble, ICARUS ensemble, Richard Haynes/Paul Hübner/Stephen Menotti, Carl Rosman, Mark Knoop, Timothy O’Dwyer, Heather Roche and others throughout the world, at venues including Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Zagreb Music Biennale, Bethanien-Kreuzberg Art Festival (Germany), Estonian Composers Festival and Asian Music Festival (Japan). As a pianist, she has regularly played with Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at major festivals and events such as Composium, Suntory Summer Festival, Toru Takemitsu Composition Award, and she has worked with composers Salvatore Sciarrino, Joji Yuasa, Dai Fujikura and others.

She has been awarded a Dian Red Kenchil International Young Composers Residency (Singapore), HCMF//’s European Composers Professional Development Program (UK and Italy), Nomura Foundation Scholarship (Japan), Tokyo-Helsinki composer exchange program (Finland and Japan) and Tokyo Wonder Site creator-in-residence (Japan). She also gave guest lectures at the Sibelius Academy.

Her writing has appeared in the CeReNem Journal (UK), and the score and recording of her ensemble work House of the sleeping beauties (2012), premiered by ICARUS ensemble at HCMF//, will be published by York University Music Press (UK) and Huddersfield Contemporary Records (UK), respectively.

Morishita has been awarded Bachelor and Master of Arts from Tokyo University of Arts, and Master of Arts by Research with distinction from the University of Huddersfield (UK). She is currently a PhD candidate at Huddersfield University under the supervision of Liza Lim and Aaron Cassidy. She has also received guidance from Chaya Czernowin, Steven Takasugi and Peter Ablinger.