豊田市少年少女合唱団 ユース
Toyota City Boys and Girls Choir youth
Japan
The Toyota City Boys and Girls Choir was established in 1977 as a municipal choir for boys and girls, which was placed as a “Toyota Citizens’ Musical Ambassador”. The choir is acting with those who joins, from the 2nd grade elementary school students to university students. They have been commissioned to premiere songs including “Hibikase-uta” for children’s chorus and piano (Composed by Takatomi Nobunaga, Lyrics by Hajime Kijima), “Our Songs” (Composed by Wataru Iwamoto, Rica Narimoto and Canato Komae, Lyrics by members of the choir ) and a theater piece for same chorus and piano, " The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments" (Composed by Atsushi Yamanaka, Author:Arnold Lobel, translation by Matsuko Makita), and other commissioned premieres.
The choir has won the Aichi Prefecture Art and Culture Award in 2001, First prize in the Modern category and the Governor’s Award of the Takarazuka International Chamber Chorus Contest in 2015. First price in the General category of the Fukushima Vocal Ensemble Competition in 2018, 2021, and 2023 , also the Fukushima Mayor’s Award in the final selection of the competition in 2018, 4th price in the same competition in 2023. First price in the Youth category of the Tokyo International Choir Competition in 2018, 2022 and 2023. Gold prize in the Folklore category at the same competition in 2023.
永 ひろこ
Hiroko Naga, a native of Nagoya City, graduated from the Department of voice music, at Aichi University of Arts. She has been studied voice music, early music singing, choral conducting, and pursues both the way of performing based on styles of each musical piece and the new theatrical expressions which are enabled by chorus. Naga has been the instructor of the choir since 1990, has planned and conducted many concerts for the choir. She has led the choir to win higher level prizes at contests including the Takarazuka International Chamber Chorus Contest, and in other Competition. She is also lecturer at Aichi University of Arts, Kinjo Gakuin University. Awarded the Best Conductor Prize at the Tokyo International Chorus Competition 2023.
