Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza Shintaro Mieda

• 1Spring is coming06:57
• 2Peregrinacion06:17
• 3Suites The Season of Hope: Overture02:46
• 4Suites The Season of Hope: The End of Cherry Blossoms06:48
• 5Suites The Season of Hope: Two Profiles of Summer 107:47
• 6Suites The Season of Hope: Two Profiles of Summer 206:12
• 7Suites The Season of Hope: Sea Breeze and Parade07:30
• 8Forget Me Not04:22
• 9El Mar en Los Ojos03:47
• 10Libertango06:00
• 11At the Sky in Moscow12:43
• Total Runtime01:11:09

Info for Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza

A spirited debut album by “Orquesta de la Esperanza,” an ensemble led by Shintaro Mieda – a pianist who creates genre-straddling chamber music of 21st century.

'Music of hope - On the occasion of their first album – by Kaisyu Yanagi' (music journalist)

Heard the first album by Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza. Except for Piazzolla’s “Libertango,” all of the pieces were written by Mieda. The songs and its’ performances are crisp and bright, just like their name “esperanza,” which means esperance or hope in English.

The composer himself plays piano and adding a bandoneon and a string quartet to consist a base of sextet, and a contrabass, percussion and a vocal join as guests. The members of Orquesta de la Esperanza are all masterful and turn colorful stories on scores written by Mieda into lively sound. The sound is based on sophisticated sound production that beauty of sonority stands out, rather than overflowing sensual beauty that you find at a tangueria in Buenos Aires, but the continuation of thrill and tension that you hear towards the heart-stopping climax shows their solid performing ability and the high level quality that the ensemble has.

Up to the present, songs composed by Mieda have a lot to do with films and plays, and you can see the visual impression form the works that he has done for this album. The words that he uses to explain his music such as, “soft rain,” “smell of wind,” and “a space between summer and winter,” triggers our visual imagination in our mind. The piece centered in the album is “Suite – Season of hope,” that is a big piece that exceeds 30 minutes of playing time. According to the composer, this is “a representation of time between the late spring to the summer after the earthquake on 3.11,” and just like he described, you can feel a sense of circulation of life in changing seasons from the song, and the image of all living matter interact and integrate will spread into listeners mind. “Death and rebirth, but in different way than it used to be” was the description by Mieda about catastrophe of 3.11 and his personal experience. The music of heart-searching and repose of souls always looks at germination of hope, and it makes you feel like standing in the vast field of rice stalks shining on the setting sun. In that field, the listeners will feel a gentle wind that is unlimitedly fresh.

The pure quality of the recordings by Kazuya Nagae that captured the sonic image of Shintaro Mieda Orquesta de la Esperanza stands out more than ever (although he has proven that with his previous works). A solid tone cluster generated by accurate pitch of strings instruments, and the outspread sound field lying on top of overlapping harmonic overtones is crystal-clear and they almost transparently reflect the multi-layered acoustic structure that the score produce. Furthermore, you almost can feel the finely honed flow of the air in the space in the part that bandoneon – the instrument that generates sound by vibrating a reed with bellows – involves, and lively catenation of sound helps creating an organic music. You can feel the happiness of being in a space that was put together by the mastesr of sound such as the composer, the performers and the recording engineer from this album.

The chamber music group on the premise of tango style plays songs written by an up-and-coming composer Shintaro Mieda who has been working for various film music and music in play. The group gave their first performance in April 2014 as a sextet band. They’d been performing mainly at Zoshigaya’s tango bar “El Choclo,” and gave their first performance as an octet at “Classics Shibuya” in January 2015. The members are mainly younger and popular musicians in Japanese tango scene.　The colorful stories of Mieda’s musical pieces, that has refinement and nostalgia of Latin essence blended with a rock-solid base of classical music, can be relished with crisp and glittering performance by “Esperanza = esperance.” The group defines the meaning of their name by giving a superb performance.

Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza:
Shintaro Mieda, composition, arrangement, piano
Satoshi Kitamura, bandoneon
Atsushi Yoshida, violin
Natsumi Okimasu, violin
Atsuki Yoshida, viola
Yumi Shimazu, cello
Guest artists:
Toru Nishijima, double bass
Hitomi Aikawa, percussion
Tomomi Oda, vocal

Recorded at Sagamiko Koryu Center, Kanagawa on May 29 and 30, 2015

Shintaro Mieda
Born in 1985. From Kanagawa. Got master’s degree of musical composition at Tokyo College of Music. Joined concert tour and recordings of bandoneon player Ryota Komatsu since 2008. Joined Naoki Kita Quartet in 2011 as a pianist and received high acclaim with his unique style of play that involve beauty and intensity. He also works as a composer of film music and music for play, and is highly regarded for his work in “Reijin (2015)” – the concert and CD album project of Takarazuka Revue Company OG – in which he worked as a pianist, an arranger and a musical director. Did the film music for “Wasurerarenai to chikatta bokuga ita,” “Kara no Kyokai,” “Sentimental Yasuko” and more. Formed Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza in 2014 to play his original songs and contentiously released unconventional pieces that include elements from modern tango to jazz and contemporary music.

Satoshi Kitamura
Born in 1979. From Nara. Got initiated into bandoneon at Kansai University and studied with Ryota Komatsu. Performed at number of concerts and tango festivals from home and abroad. In 2011, he was selected as a member of Asia team for Pablo Ziegler, former pianist of Astor Piazzolla’s Quintet. Performed in recordings of NHK’s “Ryomaden,” “Carnation,” “Yae no Sakura” and more. Received high regard for an ambitious program that excluded traditional tango and Piazzolla’s piece in “B→C” at Tokyo Opera City in September 2014.

Atsushi Yoshida
From Yamaguchi. Started violin from age of four. Won first place in Japan Students’ Music Competition at Fukuoka. Started to play tango at Tokyo University of Arts. Performed in “Ryota Komatsu & Tangists,” “Machiko Komatsu & Tango Crystal,” etc. Graduated form Tokyo University of Arts and got master’s degree of chamber music at the graduate school of the university afterwards. Currently works at Tokyo University of Arts as a part time professor.

Natsumi Okimasu
From Onomichi, Hiroshima. Studied with Hideo Kojima, late Chikashi Tanaka, Chiyoko Noguchi, and Natsumi Tamai. Won the highest award at the 15th Chugoku Youth Competition. Graduated from Tokyo University of Arts (violin major) in 2008. Offered Nakamura Music Scholarship for two years from 2004 by Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation. Joined “Machiko Komatsu & Tango Crystal” since 2009. Devoted to her study under Machiko Komatsu, one of the leading tango pianists. Got Encouragement Prize at the First Neo Classic International Competition (2010).

Atsuki Yoshida
From Ogaki, Gifu. Graduated from Tokyo College of Music (violin major) first on the list. Played both violin and viola at the university and performed for various studio and musical project including Ryuichi Kawamura, Ayaka, Hikaru Utada, and Yuta Furukawa. Performed with Ryota Komatsu as a tango musician and joined Orchesta Tipica Pampa led by Yuzo Saito. Having a presence and receiving attention in jazz and gipsy music scene by performances such as an unconventional stage performance with tap dance and a unique string duo with contrabass known as “GALI×BULI.”

Yumi Shimazu
Born in Osaka. Started cello from age of six. Graduated from Tokyo University of Arts in 2006. Studied cello with late Minoru Sugiyama, Mineo Hayashi, and Kaeko Mukouyama. Performed in recordings for various artists in all sorts of genre including performances in chamber music and orchestra. Released 8 CDs for her group.

Toru Nishijima
Born in 1973. From Tokyo. Started to play violin from five years old, and began playing electric bass at high school. Switched over to contrabass after graduated Nihon University. Performed for various artists including Jazztronik, Pablo Ziegler, Cullen Aoki, Hiromitsu Azuma, Kosuke Naka, Chie Ayado, Hiroko Williams, Lisa Ono, Maki Carmen, Yoshiko Kishino, Ryota Komatsu, Tatsuo Sunaga, Mika Nakashima, Taro Hakase, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Iwao Yoshizawa, Wasaburo and more. Released “El retratador,” second duo album with pianist Masaki Hayashi, in March 2014.

Hitomi Aikawa
Graduated from Tokyo University of Arts in 2006. Studied percussion with Ryoichi Kayatani, Makoto Aruga, and Takafumi Fujimoto. Got second place at Plovdiv International Percussion Competition in Bulgaria in 2007 (1st place not applicable). Performed at “Kohaku Utagassen” in 2013 as a member of Yoshihide Otomo & Amachan Special Big Band. Currently active in various scene as an all-around percussionist across genres.

Tomomi Oda
Born in Kanagawa. Enrolled in Tokyo University of Arts form College of Music High School and graduated form the university in March 2012. Besides her solo work, she is a keyboardist of “dCprG,” a composer of “VOICE SPACE (a collaborative group of poetry and music),” and a pianist for concerts of Chikuzan Takahashi, a well known performer of Tsugarujyamisen. Released first album “Shamn Gari” that was co-produced with Naruyoshi Kikuchi.

Booklet for Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza