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Kimula specializes
in Japanese song - both in the traditional and modern styles - composed
during the process of Westernization and modernization of post 19th
Century Japan. Involved in theater groups, at age 17 she began to
question why there was no convincing usage of the voice and Japanese
language in Japanese contemporary theater and music. From this point
on, Kimula began exploring various ways to utilize the voice and
entered the Vocal Department of the Tokyo National University of
Music and Fine Arts where she studied Italian classical and modern
songs and performed experimental works using Japanese words and
lyrics.
Her interests evolved to Twentieth Century Japanese vocal compositions
and traditional Japanese singing styles such as noh chant and nagauta
singing. She also studied the Noguchi Taisô body awareness
methods with Michizô Noguchi, who taught her how language
responds to the voice and ones inner image of the body.
Presently, Kimula records, lectures, writes and gives workshops
throughout Japan, the Americas and Asia. Discography includes a
CD released from Teichiku Records, Vocal Music in Twentieth Century
Japan--The Inner Revolution between Silk and High Tech. From
1997 to 1998, Kimula was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Chatham
College, where she taught both language and music courses. She currently
teaches at Ferris Womens College in Yokohama.
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