Kakinuma, Toshie

Kakinuma, Toshie, significant Japanese musicologist and music critic; b. Shizuoka Prefecture, July 31, 1953. She was educated in Tokyo at the Kunitachi Coll. of Music (B.M., 1977) and Ochanomizu Univ. (M.A., 1981), and then took her Ph.D. at the Univ. of Calif., San Diego in 1989 with the diss. The Musical Instruments of Harry Partch as an Apparatus of Production in Musical Theatre. She taught at the Yoshiro Irino Music Inst. (from 1990), Nippon Electronics Coll. (from 1992), and Takushoku Univ. (from 1995); also was a guest lecturer at Nippon Univ. (1995). Kakinuma has been an important figure in the organization of new music festivals in Japan, including “Music History of Quotation” (1983) and “Sound Culture Festival” (1993); also was curator of Betty Freeman’s photographic exhibitions at the B (NTT Shinuya) and Studio 200 in Tokyo. Her important writings, primarily on contemporary Japanese, American, and English composers, have appeared widely in publs. in both Japan and the U.S.; she is a regular writer/reviewer to Ongakugeijutsu (from 1980), On-Stage (from 1989), and inTune and the Asahi Evening News (from 1994); from 1981 to 1991 she was a regular contributor to Philharmony, the program guide for the NHK Sym. Orch. (1982-91). She also publ., with others, a number of music reference works (1982, 1983, 1993), and prepared a Japanese tr. of John Cage’s Silence (Tokyo, 1995).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire