Yumi Nara, Japanese singer

Yumi Nara has always had a deep affection for French music.

Following her first Grand Prix in the Franco- Japanese Music Competition, and already holding an arts degree in music from the University of Sôai in Osaka, she received a bursary from the French government to study at the Paris Conservatory.

Shortly afterwards she won the Arts and Letters Prize in the International Competition for the Interpretation of French Song in Paris.

Yumi Nara has worked with, among others, Irène Aïtoff, Monique Bouvet, Peter Gottlieb, Camille Maurane, Noémie Pérugia, Vera Rosza, Suzy Sachs and Laura Sarti.

To all she extends her gratitude and thanks.

Since 1985 she has developed an international career with a repertory ranging from Monteverdi to the avant-garde, including Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Fauré, Ravel, Webern, Poulenc, Weill, Cage, the music of the Belle Epoque, as well as major works of the modern repertory such as Shéhérazade by Ravel, Harawi by Messiaen or Pierrot Lunaire by Schonberg, and important works by Ohana, Berio, Scelsi and Matsudaïra.

Contemporary music is also important for her, and many composers have written works especially for her (Matsudaïra, Chaynes, Dao, Decoust, Dusapin, Éloy, Schapira, etc.).

Among her recent appearances:

1997 : mono-opera Genji Monogatari by Yoritsune Matsudaïra at the Festival d'Automne in Paris (also at the Hebbeltheater Berlin in 1999).

1998 : concert version in Tokyo of Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy (role of Mélisande), With the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jean Fournet.

1999 : Pierrot Lunaire and «Cabaret Schônberg» at Bordeaux Opera (staging by Hans Peter Cloos).

1999 : La Voix humaine, mono-opera by Jean Cocteau and Francis Poulenc at the Kyoto International Music Session (staging by Michel Wasserman), which is re-produced in 2001 at Tokyo and Kobe.

Recitals with piano and concerts with orchestra of French songs (Debussy, Fauré, Satie, Poulenc, Canteloube, etc.) in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe.

She has sung under the direction of Pierre Boulez, Marius Constant, Peter Eôtvôs, Jean Fournet, Diego Masson, Paul Méfano, Jacques Mercier, Giuseppe Sinopoli etc. in festivals and at the operas, on radio and television networks in Europe and Japan. .

Her talent has been largely remarked in spectacles produced by Peter Brook (L'Os, Mahabarata), Hans-Peter Cloos, Claude Confortès (Bonjour Monsieur Satie) and François Verret (Eclipse totale de soleil), and Michel Wassermann (Solo Voice)

Her discography contains the complete songs and chansons of Satie (Fontec), Pierrot Lunaire and the Cabaret Songs of Schônberg (Accord-Musidisc), The Tale of Genji by Matsudaïra (ALM), songs by Matsudaïra (ALM), Harawi by Messiaen (Accord), Oginoha by Charles Chaynes (REM), songs by Debussy and by Fauré.

Her album of Debussy songs (Cyprès) was awarded the "Choc" of Le Monde de la Musique in April 1999.