Toru Takao
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.

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Katarzyna Takao-Piastowska and Toru Takao
at the keyboard of the carillon of the Saint Aldegonde Church in Emmerich.
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The Saint Aldegonde Church in Emmerich.

Guest concert on Saturday, July 7, 2024 at 4 p.m.
Music for two carillonneurs.
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.