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The Japanese soprano, Michiko Takahashi, studied at Tokyo Metropolitan Nishi High School in Suginami-ku, Tokyo. She graduated from the University of Arts in Tokyo in opera singing in 2001. She went to study bel canto in Arezzo in Italy, with Slavka Taskova Paoletti. Back in Japan, she joined the Ensemble Planeta, a group of a cappella singers with whom she has given many concerts in Japan and Asia, and recorded several albums.
Noticed by Agnès Mellon and passionate about Baroque and the Renaissance music, Michiko Takahashi came to France in 2009 and perfected in her class, but also the Conservatoire Régional de Paris (CRR de Paris) in the Early Music Department, working with Howard Crook, Isabelle Poulenard, Sophie Boulin, Ivon Repérant and Stéphan Fuget. She participates in numerous projects at the Conservatoire, including with Ariane Morette, Jean Tubéry, Sébastien Marq and Philippe Beaussant. She was selected by Martin Gester for pour Génération Baroque 2010.
Michiko Takahashi embodied Altisidora in La Duchesse désireuse et amoureuse, opera by Boismortier Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse at the Biennale du Fort de Bron in the summer 2013, for forty performances. In opera, France and Japan, she has embodied and the Mystery and Complained in The Fairy Queen by H. Purcell, Phani and Zima in Les Indes Galantes by Rameau, Thalia and La Folie in Plataea by Rameau, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart and Musica in Orfeo by Monteverdi.
Michiko Takahashi sang as a soloist in Requiem by Gabriel Fauré, Coronation Mass and Solennes Vesperae de confessore K.339' by W.A. Mozart, 'Die Schöpfung by J.Haydn, Missa Beatissimae Virginis Mariae by Michael Haydn, Johannes-Passion (BWV 245), Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244), Magnificat in D major (BWV 243) and several cantatas by J.S. Bach, the 'Gloria' by Antonio Vivaldi, Stabat Mater by Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Nicola Porpora, Leçons des ténèbres and several pieces by François Couperin, De profundis by Mondonville. In June 2015, she sang Te Deum by Henry Madin at the Chapelle royale de Versailles (Direwctor: Daniel Spoons, Stradivaria), recorded by the Alpha label.
Since Michiko Takahashi was in France, she has participated in several recordings, including Vêpres pour l'Assomption by Nicola Porpora conducted by Martin Gester (Ambronay), Cantates spirituelles by De Bousset with Ensemble Le Tendre Amour (Brilliant Classics), and a disc of German Baroque music "Ferveur, Louange et Passion" with Esemble Isabelle d’Este (Paraty - Harmonia mundi).
Michiko Takahashi works as a soloist with ensembles such as Le Parlement de Musique (Director: Martin Gester), Ensemble La Fenice, Le Tendre Amour, Ensemble Aedes, Ensemble Sagittarius (Director: Michel Laplénie), Ensemble Barcarole, Ensemble Stradivaria and Les Cris de Paris, with whom she participated in festivals of Ambronay, Périgord noir, Périgueux, Chaise Dieu, Beaune, d’Aix en Provence, in particular. She also gives numerous recitals in Japan and France, especially with Duo programme with theorbo - 17th century Italian and English music and secular and sacred French cantatas. In September 2015, she made a concert tour in Japan with Ensemble Stradivaria and Dominique Visse together in a programme of George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi. She currently lives in Paris, France. |
