2016–2026 · FUKUOKA
Die Gilde der Musiker Kyushu Die Gilde der Musiker Kyushu — Composer–Ensemble Collective · Fukuoka, Japan
Statement · 01

The music being written now,
heard in Fukuoka.

Origin Fukuoka, Kyushu
Japan / 1995→

Practice Composition · Performance
Criticism · Archive

Network Local · National
International

Based in Fukuoka and Kyushu, Die Gilde der Musiker Kyushu is a music collective for composers, performers, critics — and for those who listen. What matters to us is not only the canon of works whose reputations are already settled, but being there, in the same time and place, for the music that is coming into being right now.

A work is written. A performer turns it into sound. A composer puts it into words. A critic records it; listeners receive it through their own senses. Patiently building up that whole sequence of acts, here in Fukuoka, sits at the centre of what we do.


Composers

Four people, making sound.

The composers at the heart of our work. Self-taught, conservatory-trained, or arriving from across other fields — four artists who have each reached contemporary music by a different path.

Portrait of Izaino Yujin

Composer / President

Izaino Yujin

井財野 友人

Graduate of the Department of Instrumental Music at Tokyo University of the Arts and of its master's programme. Studied violin with Momoo Kishibe, Chikashi Tanaka, and Teiko Maehashi. Has served as concertmaster of the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Chamber Orchestra, and others. Studied composition with Tetsu Tamura and has continued to present his own works regularly. He gave premieres of his own pieces as soloist in Hungary in 2001 and in South Korea in 2003. In 2019 he presented contemporary works as conductor and violinist in Vancouver, Canada, and was honoured by the Kyushu Composers Association. Member of the Japan Federation of Composers.

Portrait of Goushi Yonekura

Composer / Vice President

Goushi Yonekura

米倉 豪志

Born in Aichi Prefecture in 1975. A composer and AI researcher and developer. He learned the piano as a child and developed a deep interest in contemporary music. In high school he studied bassoon with Yoshiyuki Nakanishi. Composition is self-taught, pursued through years of independent study. After moving to Canada in 2007 he has been based in Vancouver, working in artificial-intelligence research and development while making work that draws on acoustic analysis and on mathematical and computational processes. By incorporating his own software into his pieces, he pursues an idiom that moves freely between technology and art.

Portrait of Atsushi Terashima

Composer / Director

Atsushi Terashima

寺島 敦

Graduate of the Department of International Cultural Studies, School of Humanities, Seinan Gakuin University. Full member of the Piano Teachers' National Association of Japan, a "Piano Step" advisor for that association, and a member of the Kyushu Composers Association. Jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Studied jazz theory with Katsuya Tamura. He has written many blues-form study pieces for children, including "Sabineko no Blues", "Donguri no Blues", "Sunday Blues", and "Pumpkin Blues". Each year he hosts a "Jazz Recital" at which children, from preschoolers through to junior-high students, can experience playing alongside professional jazz musicians.

Portrait of Mari Miyamoto

Composer / Secretary General

Mari Miyamoto

宮本 真理

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture. From the age of five she studied classical piano with her mother, growing up in a household where her father played the accordion and harmonica. Her older brother is Jun Abe — composer, arranger, multi-keyboardist, producer, and the keyboard player of CASIOPEA. Today, alongside her work as a piano teacher, she composes her own pieces, writes background music for television and radio programmes, and supplies music for artists and the stage.


02 About · Die Gilde der Musiker Kyushu A Contemporary Music Society of Kyushu
Founded 2016 · Fukuoka

Music,
as a place
of the present.

Die Gilde der Musiker
Kyushu

Die Gilde der Musiker Kyushu is a music organisation working to create and to broadcast a contemporary music culture.

Founded in 2016 by musicians with ties to Kyushu, the work has slowly taken shape through concerts, the presentation of new pieces, the publication of records, and ongoing collaboration between musicians.

We do not believe that contemporary music should be the property of a small group of specialists alone.

Before there is anything difficult, there is sound.
Before any explanation, the body responds.
And only after that do words come.

Composers and performers, critics and listeners, the local and the global — building bridges between them, and bringing the music of our own time as an open experience: that is what we hope to do.


Practice · 03

Building a place where
creation, performance, and criticism circulate.

Our concerts are not simply showcases that line up one work after another. Newly written pieces — or works re-presented in a new form — are introduced together with the composer's own words; performers raise that music up onto the stage; critics record what they hear; and from there it opens into a conversation with the audience.

01
Composition

Bringing new work to the audience in the composer's own voice.

We focus on premieres of new and revised works by composers connected to Kyushu, introduced alongside talks by the composers themselves. Programme notes, the background to the writing, and the dialogue between composer and performer are handed to the audience with the same weight as the score.
02
Performance

Performers based in Fukuoka and Kyushu, raising the music of our time onto the stage.

Detailed rehearsals by professional performers, open practice sessions, and back-and-forth between composer and performer all lead to the single evening of a premiere, in which the work is finally completed. This is not just "playing the notes" — it is the joint act of bringing a piece into being.
03
Criticism / Archive

Carrying each concert forward through criticism, recordings, video, and writing.

Through commissioned writing from three critics, public audio and video recordings, and free streaming on YouTube and Facebook, we open a one-night experience into a conversation that crosses time and geography.
04 Latest Recordings Music on record — Performance Archive

Music on record.

For those who couldn't come to the hall but want to find the music later. To let musicians and organisations in distant countries see the activity taking shape in Fukuoka. And so that composers themselves can move on to the next work. Through audio, video, and streaming, we open the time of each concert outward into a wider conversation.

Score · Yonekura Chamber Concerto "The Sea" · I. The Sea — a spread from the open score. Opening of the first movement, with the composer's red-pen note on the piano part.

Concerts · 05

Contemporary Music Festival

The Die Gilde der Musiker Kyushu Contemporary Music Festival is a place to meet the music of our time, here in Fukuoka. The works are not laid out as finished objects: they come into being on the night, through the composer's words, the performer's body, the listener's concentration, and the critic's eye.

Edition Vol. 02
Date Sun 28 Feb 2027
Upcoming

Vol. 02
Contemporary Music Festival

Scheduled for Sunday, 28 February 2027. Venue, programme, and other details will be announced on this site and on social media as soon as they are confirmed.
Edition Vol. 01
Date Fri 27 Mar 2026
Time Doors 16:30 / Curtain 17:00
Venue Airef Hall
2-5-1 Maizuru, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka
Admission Free
Host Die Gilde der Musiker Kyushu
Vol. 01 Contemporary Music Festival poster
Poster · Vol. 01 Vol. 01 Contemporary Music Festival — suites and a chamber concerto by three composers, Goushi Yonekura, Izaino Yujin, and Atsushi Terashima, gathered into a single evening at Airef Hall in Fukuoka.
Past event Thank you for joining us.

Vol. 01
Contemporary Music Festival

The music being written now, sent out from Kyushu.

Five new and recent works by three composers connected to Kyushu — Goushi Yonekura, Izaino Yujin, and Atsushi Terashima — traced in a single evening across different vessels: suites, a chamber concerto, and more. Conducted and performed by eleven musicians active in the region.
Programme
17:00 Mimitsu · The Hakata Doll Maker Izaino Yujin
17:30 Chamber Concerto "The Sea" Goushi Yonekura
— Intermission —
19:00 Suite: Manhattan Midtown Atsushi Terashima
19:30 Tohe Myonghyang Izaino Yujin
Performers · Vol. 01

The conductor,
and the players.

Under the direction of conductor Taishi Harada, eleven soloists active around Fukuoka come together. The forces shift from work to work, expanding from solo lines into a chamber concerto, a suite, and full ensemble writing.

Portrait of Taishi Harada
Conductor / President
Taishi Harada

Graduate of the Department of Instrumental Music at Tokyo University of the Arts and of its master's programme. Has served as concertmaster of the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Chamber Orchestra, and others. In 2019 he presented contemporary works as conductor in Vancouver, Canada, and was honoured by the Kyushu Composers Association. Since 2021 he has held regular conducting engagements in Tokyo and Fukuoka. President of Die Gilde der Musiker Kyushu. Composes under the name Izaino Yujin. Conducts the entire programme at the Vol. 01 Contemporary Music Festival.

Portrait of Asami Takeuchi
Violin I
Asami Takeuchi

Former member of the Hibiki Hall Chamber Ensemble. Graduate of the Arts Course (violin major) at Fukuoka University of Education; holder of a diploma from the Perugia International Music Festival in Italy. Based in Kitakyushu, she works as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Concertmaster of Beethoven Sinfonietta and member of Layworld.

Portrait of Aiko Ogata
Violin II
Aiko Ogata

Born in Kumamoto Prefecture. Graduate of the music programme and master's course at Fukuoka University of Education. Gold prize at the All-Kyushu High School Music Competition; excellence award at the Kitakyushu Arts Festival. Performed with the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra at the Japan Federation of Musicians' Newcomer Concert; subsequently held a position with the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra. She now works as a freelance performer and teacher.

Portrait of Yui Ogura
Viola
Yui Ogura

Graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts. Second prize at the second Munetsugu Ensemble International Competition; top prize in the chamber-music division of the sixth Romanian International Competition. Frequent guest with the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony, Nagasaki OMURA Chamber Ensemble, and Kitakyushu Grand Philharmonic.

Portrait of Yuria Morishita
Violoncello
Yuria Morishita

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture; graduate of the Department of Instrumental Music at Tokyo University of the Arts. Grand prize in the strings division of the 33rd Fukuoka Prefectural High School Music Competition; gold prize at the 38th All-Kyushu High School Music Competition; finalist in the cello division of the 72nd and 73rd national rounds of the Japan Student Music Competition. Television appearances include the BS programme Koisuru Classic.

Portrait of Juri Ito
Contrabass
Juri Ito

Graduate of the Department of Instrumental Music at Tokyo University of the Arts. Selected at the 2008 Seiji Ozawa Music Academy auditions and took part in its production of Die Fledermaus; the following year she joined the Music Academy Orchestra Project's tour of China. Active mainly in Fukuoka and Kyushu, she works in orchestras and chamber music and as a teacher. Member of the Hibiki Hall Chamber Ensemble.

Portrait of Hitomi Momiyama
Flute
Hitomi Momiyama

Graduate of Toho Gakuen College of Music. First prize in the high-school division of the Fukuoka regional final of the 56th All-Japan Student Music Competition; NHK Fukuoka Station Director's Prize in the ensemble division of the West Japan International Music Competition. Flute instructor for the Kitakyushu Junior Orchestra. Also a master colour therapist; she runs events that pair music with colour.

Portrait of Mayu Wakaki
Oboe
Mayu Wakaki

Graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts and of the master's course at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. First prize at the Richard Rauschmann Oboe Competition (Germany); finalist and recipient of the commissioned-work prize at the Prague Spring International Competition (Czech Republic). Former oboist with the Graz Opera. Member of Ensemble Rooom.

Portrait of Miyoko Oda
Clarinet
Miyoko Oda

Clarinettist with the Kyushu Wind Ensemble. Part-time lecturer at the music course of Fukuoka Daiichi High School and at Kwassui Women's University. Based in Fukuoka, she performs in wind ensemble, orchestra, and chamber-music settings, and works as a school-band coach and private teacher. Also active as the illustrator "Oda Miyo".

Portrait of Manka Shimizu
Horn
Manka Shimizu

Graduate of the Faculty of Music at Kyoto City University of Arts and of the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg in Germany, where she also completed her master's degree. Has held positions with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra. Part-time professor at Oita Prefectural College of Arts and Culture, part-time lecturer at Heisei College of Music, and member of the Kyushu Wind Ensemble and the Nagasaki OMURA Chamber Ensemble.

Portrait of Shuko Kubota
Piano
Shuko Kubota

Graduate of the music course at Fukuoka Jo Gakuin High School and of the performance course at Toho Gakuen College of Music. Grand prize at the 22nd Fukuoka Prefectural High School Music Competition; Governor's Prize (top prize, piano division) at the 2006 Kitakyushu Arts Festival; Accompanist's Prize at the 2012 edition of the same festival. Based in Kyushu, she works as a soloist, chamber musician, accompanist, and teacher.

Portrait of Yui Miyashita
Piano
Yui Miyashita

Graduate of the Faculty of Music at Kyoto City University of Arts. After graduating, she completed the jazz piano course at Koyo Conservatory. Winner of multiple competitions, and recipient of the Piano Teachers' National Association Teacher's Prize and Special Teacher's Prize. Working across classical, jazz, and anime and game music, she is active as an arranger, chamber musician, and self-produced concert organiser, based in Kyushu.

06 History · The work so far 2016 → 2026

History

Decade in Practice

No rush. No stop.

This is not a one-off project but an ongoing effort to let contemporary music take root in Fukuoka and Kyushu. We are in no hurry — but we do not stop.

2016
Founded by a group of musicians with ties to Kyushu.
Fukuoka · Founding
2016
1st Concert.
11.12 Miyanomori Gallery "Momoan", Fukuoka
2017
2nd Concert.
4.1 "Momoan", Fukuoka
2018
3rd Concert.
9.1 Airef Hall, Fukuoka
Co-presented with the Kyushu Composers Association and VICO (Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra)
2019
4th Concert.
11.8 Airef Hall, Fukuoka
Selected for the FFAC Step-Up grant programme
2021
5th Concert in Fukuoka and Tokyo.
11.22 Airef Hall
12.17 Former Tokyo Music School Sōgakudō
AFF grant awarded
2022
6th Concert.
9.23 Ongaku no Tomo Hall, Shinjuku, Tokyo
AFF2 grant awarded
2022
7th Concert.
11.4 Airef Hall, Fukuoka
AFF2 grant awarded
2023
8th Concert in Fukuoka and Tokyo.
9.23 Seinan Community Center, Fukuoka
10.14 Marie Konzert, Itabashi, Tokyo
2025
9th Concert in Fukuoka and Tokyo.
9.14 Airef Hall, Fukuoka
10.12 Marie Konzert, Itabashi, Tokyo
2025
Izaino Yujin and Goushi Yonekura Two-Composer Showcase.
11.2 Mallorca Hall, Fukuoka
Two-Composer Showcase poster
2026
Vol. 01 Contemporary Music Festival.Concert details →
3.27 Airef Hall, Fukuoka
Vol. 01 Contemporary Music Festival poster

Artists · 07

The people who make sound,
and the people who carry it.

We are not a society of composers alone, nor of performers alone. There are people who write the work, and performers who listen for it. There are people who hold the music up, and those who record what happens. And there are listeners.

Composers

Composers writing new work.

Centred on composers connected to Kyushu, we provide ongoing premiere opportunities for new and revised pieces. We respect composers who take responsibility for the whole process by which a work reaches the world.
Performers

Performers who give the music of our time a body.

Through detailed rehearsals by professional performers and ongoing exchange with the composer, we bring newly written work to completion on the stage.
Critics / Writers

Connecting works and language, and passing the record on.

Through commissioned writing from three critics, we record and publish reviews of works and performances in programmes, post-concert booklets, and online articles.
Supporters / Partners

Those who support the work through venues, recording, streaming, communications, and funding.

We are not a closed circle of artists. Together with audiences, supporters, communities, businesses, and educational institutions, we build the conditions in which music can keep going.

Criticism · 08

Putting the act of listening
into words.

Music is not something that words alone can fully account for. But because words exist, the experience of having listened can be thought through again. We treat criticism not as mere evaluation, but as a practice that stands alongside composition and performance.

01
Reviews

Critical writing

Reviews of works and performances by commissioned critics. Published continuously in programme booklets and as web articles after each concert.
02
Programme Notes

Programme notes by the composer

Words from the composers themselves on their works. Made public in pre-concert talks, in printed programmes, and as commentary on streamed broadcasts.
03
Interviews

Interviews with composers and performers

Long-form recorded conversations that preserve the background of the writing, the choices made in performance, and the process of working together.
04
Essays

Essays on the region, on creation, on contemporary music

Reading material on the relationship between contemporary music and the region, and on where contemporary music stands in Fukuoka right now.
09 International · From Fukuoka, outward to musicians of the world From Fukuoka · Outward
Outward Conversations

From Fukuoka,
outward to musicians of the world.

From Fukuoka, outward — to the artists of the world.

The record of music made in Fukuoka does not need to stay in Fukuoka. Through audio, video, criticism, articles, and online streaming, we carry the shape of what is being made here outward, into Japan and overseas.

Drawing on relationships with artists and arts organisations in North America — Canada in particular — and in Europe, we want to build entry points where the composers, performers, and critics of Fukuoka can meet people abroad. Then to grow those into co-productions and shared concerts. None of that begins out of nothing one day. It begins from a reliable record, an honest introduction, and a careful awareness of one another's work.

Arts × Industry · 10

Where art and industry meet.

Art is not something that exists only away from society. The experience of hearing new music is also the experience of meeting the unknown. To take in a sensation that does not yet have a name; to listen for something that has no immediate answer. That is an attitude with serious meaning, even at the workbench of technology and industry.

For that reason, our organisation also values the conversations Fukuoka's arts community can have with people working in technology, broadcasting, startups, finance, and the wider world of business.

From the conversations after a concert, perspectives can emerge that artists alone could not see. For people working in industry, too, those conversations can become a source of ideas that they would never reach by staying inside their usual fields. We hope to nurture that kind of quiet crossroads here in Fukuoka.

Art generates new imagination; industry gives that imagination a sustainable footing and a route into society. When that circulation begins, a music venue becomes more than just a place for listening — it becomes a place where the future of the region is thought through.

— Fukuoka, broadcast as a city where art and industry think about sustainability together.

11 Support · Sustaining this work Sustaining the Music That Comes Next

Sustaining
this work.

For new music to be written, performed, recorded, and passed on to the next generation, a great deal of support is needed. Coming to the hall. Watching the videos. Reading the writing. Telling a friend. Backing the work through donations or sponsorship. Each of those acts becomes part of the force that lets a contemporary music culture take root in Fukuoka.

Contact · 12

Get in touch.

We welcome inquiries about concerts, performance bookings, premieres, criticism, press, recording, partnerships with educational institutions, work with companies and organisations, and exchanges with overseas groups. To carry the contemporary music coming out of Fukuoka further and deeper — please don't hesitate to write.

Contact Form