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The Japanese soprano, Ayaka Oki (Muramoto) [Japanese: 隠岐彩夏], graduated from the Arts and Culture Course, Faculty of Education, Iwate University; Completed the Master's and Doctoral Courses at the Graduate School of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts; Received a PhD for her research on Robert Schumann's Lieder. She traveled to the USA as a recipient of the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Overseas Study Program for Upcoming Artists and a Japanese Fellowship for the Japan-US Artist Exchange Program. Trained in New York. She won 1st Place in the 20th Friendship German Lieder Competition; Received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award. As a bonus prize, she gave a recital in Vienna. She won 1st Place in the Vocal Section of the 85th Japan Music Competition; Received the Iwatani Award (Audience Award) and the E. Nakamichi Award; Received the Mitsubishi Jisho Award in 2015; Received the To-o Cultural Award in 2019. She represented Japan at Théâtre Lyrichorégra 20 (Montreal). In 2013 and 2014 she was recipient of the Munetsugu Angel Fund Scholarship from the Japan Federation of Musicians. She attended Eva Blahová's master-class at the Wiener Musikseminar in 2016. In 2017, she took master-classes with Michael Gees and Mark Padmore, sponsored by Toppan Hall. She studied vocal music with Masatoshi Sasaki, Aoi Asakura, Chieko Teratani, Nazzareno Antinori, Ira Siff, and Mignon Dunn.
Ayaka Oki has a wide repertoire of songs and oratorios, and has performed as a concert soloist on many occasions. In 2022, she performed as a soloist in L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eliahu Inbal and by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Nott. She is active in a wide range of media, including NHK-E TV's "Classic TV" and NHK-FM's "Recital Nova," and participated in the Disney on Classic national tour for three seasons in 2020-2021. She has performed with Tatsuya Yabe and Yukio Yokoyama, and released her first solo album, "Dearest Night," from King Records. It was selected as a special selection in "Record Geijutsu" and "Stereo." She has been appointed as the musical director of the Blue Sea and Forest Music Festival (artistic director: Okisawa Nodoka), which will start in 2025 in her hometown of Aomori.
She is a member of AMATI. She is a member of the Morioka Bach Cantata Verein. She is also a member of the Mishima Seseragi Ensemble.
Recordings: CD "Gift" (Office Amici); CD "Ogura Hyakunin Isshu No.2" (Office Amici); CD "Dearest Night" (King Records); CD "Haneda Kentaro: Symphony Space Battleship Yamato -LIVE 2023-" (Columbia Classics).
Major concert performances: J.S. Bach: Church and secular cantatas and masses, Magnificat in D major BWV 243, Matthäus-Passion BWV 244, Johannes-Passion BWV 245, Mass in B minor BWV 232, Weihnachts-Oratorium BWV 248; J. Haydn: Nikolai Mass, The Creation; Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Vespro della Beata Vergine; George Frideric Handel: Messiah, Dixit Dominus; L.v. Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; W.A. Mozart: Coronation Mass, Mass in C minor, Requiem; Gabriel Fauré: Requiem; Felix Mendelssohn: Paulus, Elias, and Hymns; Johannes Brahms: German Requiem; Dvorak: Stabat Mater and Requiem; Rossini: Petite messe solennelle; Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4; Bruckner: Te Deum and Mass No. 3; Francis Poulenc's Gloria; Samuel Barber: Knoxville Summer 1915
Opera perfrmance: Courtesan 1, Queen of Sheba in G.F. Handel's Solomon; Semele in G.F. Handel's Semele (Handel Festival Japan); Pamina in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; Adina in G. Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore; Mimi and Musetta in G. Puccini's La Bohème; Lola in P. Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. |
