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Paul Chihara

The career of composer Paul Chihara, an American of Japanese background, has multiple strands, including concert music and scores for film and musical theater. His concert works have been commissioned by a variety of top orchestras and foundations. Chihara was born on July 9, 1938, in Seattle. For three years during World War II, he and his family lived in an internment camp in Idaho. Chihara studied English literature at the University of Washington, going on for an M.A. in that field from Cornell University. At that point, he switched to composition, studying with Robert Palmer and receiving a doctorate in 1965. By that year, he had already composed a viola concerto and a Magnificat. Chihara undertook further studies with Gunther Schuller at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts, Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and Ernst Pepping in what was then West Berlin. In 1971, Chihara and Toru Takemitsu shared the post of composer-in-residence at Vermont's Marlboro Festival. From 1973 to 1986, he was composer-in-residence at the San Francisco Ballet. Chihara's early music used the 12-tone technique and various other contemporary stylistic devices; his Ceremony II (1974) was written for amplified flute, two amplified cellos, and percussion. In 1975, Chihara composed his first film score for director Roger Corman's Death Race 2000. Although he has continued to hold various academic positions, he soon decided to make his living primarily as a composer. Chihara has written more than 100 film scores, some of them for major studio productions, including The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978), Prince of the City (1981), and Crossing Delancey (1988). After he began writing film music, Chihara also turned away from academic styles in his concert music, adopting more accessible idioms with tonal harmony. His works have been commissioned by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Roger Wagner Chorale, the Naumberg Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has also received commissions from the Boston Symphony and London Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra. Chihara's works include two symphonies, concertos, chamber music, choral compositions (including a Missa Carminum, or "Folk Song Mass"), and several ballets. His works often involve sharply contrasting elements; they are sometimes influenced by Asian musical styles and may quote jazz or popular music. He served as the first composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor Neville Marriner, and he has taught at the University of California at Los Angeles and at New York University. Chihara has remained active into old age, composing Ave Maria/Scarborough Fair for double chorus and oboe in 2015. As of the mid-2020s, more than 50 recordings of his works were in print.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography

12 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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