Toru
Takao,
born in 1977
in Himeji, Japan,
studied
carillon
at
the Dutch Carillon
School in Amersfoort,
the Netherlands with Arie
Abbenes, Bernhard Winsemius
and Frans Haagen and
obtained a Master
of Music there in
2008. The same year
he won second prize
at the Queen
Fabiola
Carillon
Competition in
Mechelen,
Belgium and
first prize at
the
international
carillon
competition in
Middelburg,
the
Netherlands.
In 2007 he and
Malgosia
Fiebig won
first prize
at the four
hands carillon
competition in
Zwolle, and in
2013 he and
his wife
Katarzyna took
second
prize.
Toru and his wife have worked as
freelance
musicians and
carillonneurs
in Germany
since 2009,
where they
promote
German,
Japanese and
Polish
carillon
music. In 2012
they
reinstituted
regular
carillon
recitals at
the Saint
Aldegundis
Church in
Emmerich.
Since 2015
they have
organized the
"Emmericher
Glocken
Sommer", a
concert series
staged in
cooperation
with the city
and the church
and which also
features guest
carillonneurs.
 Katarzyna
Takao-Piastowska and
Toru
Takao
at the keyboard of the carillon of the Saint Aldegonde Church in Emmerich. |
 The
Saint Aldegonde
Church
in Emmerich.
|
Guest concert on Sunday, September 15, 2024 at 4 p.m.
Music for two carillonneurs by D'hollander, Piazzolla, Takao-Piastowsk and Saint Saëns.
Download program here.
Click here to listen to Katarzyna Takao-Piastowska and Toru Takao play Le Jardin féerique from Ma Mère l'Oye by Maurice Ravel on the carillon of the Saint Peter's Church in Beek, the Netherlands.