Yasutaka Hemmi is one of the most dynamic and active violinists for contemporary music in Japan. He has worked with major composers such as Toshio Hosokawa, Joji Yuasa, Akira Nishimura, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann, Ivan Fedele, Jörg Widmann, Michael Jarrell and given literally dozens of world and Japanese premieres of new works.
He has invented new techniques for the violin and has collaborated with many composers, dancers, visual artists, and actors. From 2001 to 2003 he was one of the core members of ChampdAction (Belgium) as a violinist, and made artistic decisions in this ensemble. From 2003 he has been a member of ‘next mushroom promotion’ (Osaka). He has also performed as a duo called X[iksa] with Japanese harpist Takayo Matsumura for more than 15 years.
Hemmi’s solo CD Violin Encounters was released through Megadisc (Belgium) in 2004. It includes the Berio Sequenza VIII, Brian Ferneyhough’s Intermidio and most important, the world premiere recording of Ferneyhough’s Unsichchtbare Farben.
His performances are also available on several other CDs and DVDs. In January 2012 he gave a recital of the complete Freeman Etudes by John Cage, organized by JSCM, which had not been performed by a Japanese violinist before.
His lectures on techniques of contemporary music, for example at Stanford University in 2007, have stimulates composers to write new works.
Since he formed the violin and harp duo called X[iksa] with harpist Takayo Matsumura in 2006, it has given about 600 concerts not only in Japan but in countries such as Australia, South Africa, Canada and South Korea.
