Time:
Thursday
December, 19, 2019
08:00 PM - 09:15 PM
Location:
Skyline Ballroom W375AB
Category
INTERNATIONAL BANDS
Performer Details
Performer Bio Synopsis
Hikarigaoka Girls High School was established in 1963 by St. Catalina Academy as an academic branch organization of Religiosas Misionesas de Santo Domingo. Its motto is “Honesty, Purity and Service.” The school consists of about 1200 female students who are encouraged to study diligently and do well in club activities. Leading clubs with national standing include concert band, dance, athletics and choir. During the holiday season the school produces a popular “Christmas Pageant” with band, dance, and choir members who annually receive enthusiastic reviews from patrons and the media.
The Wind Orchestra was established with 17 volunteer students in 1969. It welcomes its 50th anniversary in 2019 with more than 120 band members. Unlike an American schedule, the band meets and rehearses before and after the school day. The band’s main annual events include concert contest in summer, Christmas Pageant in winter and a main concert in spring that draws an audience of 3,000.
The band has appeared in the All Japan Band Competition National Finals 17 times, attended the Mid-Europe Festival (Austria) in 2001 and 2004 and the Summa Cum Laude Festival of Vienna, receiving Grand-Prix in 2004. They were also invited to perform for the Japan Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference from 2009 to 2015. Hikarigaoka Girls HS Wind Orchestra participated in several consortium commissions including those for John Mackey’s Kingfishers Catch Fire, Steven Bryant’s Axis Mundi, David Maslanka’s Liberation and Andrew Boysen Jr.’s This is the Drum.
The band often welcomes professional musicians such as Mamoru Nakata, former saxophonist of Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, Taizo Okuyama, TKWO trumpet, Ayako Oura, TKWO clarinet and Ayako Maeda, flautist.
The wind orchestra has commissioned Mamoru Nakata arrangements of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D-Major and Passacaglia and Fugue in C-minor, receiving superlative reviews at the All Japan Band Contest National Finals.
Conductor's Bio
Kentaro Hino was born in 1970 and started playing tuba in junior high school, which he continued through university.
He was appointed to Hikarigaoka Girls High School as an English teacher in 1993 and currently serves as vice-principal. In 1995, he received the Japanese Band Director Association’s Grand-Prix in conducting award.
Hino has led the band to the All Japan Band Contest finals 15 times, receiving two gold awards. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018 in recognition of his many appearances at AJBC finals.
He was an executive member of the Japan Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference Association working with John Mackey, Steven Bryant, and David Maslanka.
Hino’s mentor is Mamoru Nakata, former tenor saxophonist with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, studying band education methods and repertoire,
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