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The Japanese lutenist, Toyohiko Satoh, studied Rikkyo University in Tokyo - music history with Tatsuo Minagawa, and guitar with Kazuhito Ohosawa. His first guitar recital was performed at the Tokyo Bunka-Kaikan in 1965. He also studied cello and musicology, began his study of the lute, and studied composition with Kure Yasush. In 1968 he came to Europe to study the lute with Eugen Müller Dombois at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switserland.
Toyohiko Satoh is probably the best known of presently performing "authentic" lutenists - those who have studied and adopted historical concepts, instruments and techniques. His formal debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York in 1982 received quite a favorable review in The New York Times. As soloist as well as basso continuo player, he has performed in many festivals such as the Vienna Musikwochen, Holland Festival, Toronto Festival, Lisbon Festival, and the Flanders Festival. He has toured extensively in Europe, and throughout Canada, USA and Japan. Besides the Baroque lute, he plays renaissance lute and other related instruments such as the theorbo and chitarrone.
Since 1970, when he made the first solo baroque lute album (for Philips ?), Toyohiko Satoh has recorded extensively for Philips, Telefunken, EMI, Harlekijn and other companies, and since 1990 for Channel Classics for the new CD series. His ensemble recordings with such noted musicians as Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Elly Ameling brought consistent honours and awards. His album "Pathodia Sacra et Profana" by Constantijn Huygens, played by Elly Ameling, Max Egmond and two other instrumentalists, won the Edison Prize.
Toyohiko Satoh has been active as a composer since 1981 and has performed his compositions in festivals in the USA, Portugal, Holland and Japan. Two CD's with his own compositions performed with his group Alba Musica Kyo have been released on the Channel Classics label. With that group he also performs medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque music as well as contemporary music of other composers. Some of his compositions and his Method for the Baroque Lute are published by Tree Edition in Germany and Academia Music in Japan.
Toyohiko Satoh held the position of lute professor at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Holland from 1973 to 2005 (?). He frequently gives master-classes in various European countries, such as Italy (Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena), Germany, the USA, Canada and Japan. Since 2000 he has been the president of the Lute & Early Guitar Society of Japan (LGS-Japan) and the LGS-Europe. |
