Taro is touring Australia again summer 2012-13
CLICK HERE for tour schedule.

Sri Taro Terahara

Click here for Taro's Youtube videos

Taro Terahara is one of the leading musicians in the thriving and highly competitive Indian classical music scene in Japan. His music comfortably spans the full range from contemplative soulful alaap (slow non-rhythmic introduction) to exciting, rhythmic jhala (fast-paced finale). He has a great command of sur (tuning) and lay (timing), with the ability to compose innovative taans and tihais on the spur of the moment, yet all of this is tempered by a beautiful humility and devotion to the mood and spirit of the raga. His music both engages the mind and touches the heart.

Born in 1968 to two junior high school teachers, Terahara had a relatively free childhood.

From an early age he enjoyed playing flutes and whistles while walking home from school, and later making his own flutes and taking part in school performances. At the age of 10 he began playing trumpet in the athletics carnival brass band, having been chosen for trumpet by a game of janken (rocks-paper-scissors). He continued playing trumpet for ten years or more, joining high school and university jazz bands.

At the age of 17 his musical outlook started to change when he was “shocked” on coming into contact with Sufi music and dance such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Pakistani Qawalli singer) and the Mevlevi Dancers (Sufi Whirling Dervishes of Turkey), as well as other than non-Western music. He was also greatly influenced by Keith Jarrett’s "The Koln Concert", and remembers being inspired that “just one person could perform such beautiful music for a full hour through pure improvisation.” While continuing in the university jazz band, he also joined the university gamelan group, "Dharma Bhudaya", and became ryuteki (a type of Japanese flute) leader in the university Gagaku orchestra (Japanese court music).

Along with these eclectic influences, Terahara started avidly collecting and studying the CDs of Indian classical music masters such as Pt. Nikhil Banerjee (sitar), Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia (bansuri), Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma (santoor) and U. Zakir Hussain (tabla). In 1991, the world-renowned master of bansuri Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia came to Japan and performed in the All Night Concert at Xebec Hall, Kobe. Terahara “heard the voice of the bansuri calling to him” and immediately decided that "I will, without question, learn to master this flute!”

In 1992 he became a student of Mr. Hiroshi Nakagawa (long-time disciple of Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia) and the following year quit graduate school to devote himself entirely to the practice of Indian classical music. He soon went to India for the first time to take lessons from Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia. From 1997 he began studies under Mr. Amit Roy (disciple of Pt. Nikhil Banerjee), who is generally seen as the father-figure of Indian classical music in Japan, who has guided and refined Terahara’s musical talents to the point where he has now recorded 2 CDs with tabla accompaniment by none other than the great maestro of tabla, Pt. Anindo Chatterjee: Air (2005) and Mist (2006).

Taro Terahara has performed Indian classical music across the whole of Japan as well as in India. He has visited Australia for concerts most years since 2006, performing at Woodford Folk Festival, Festival of Tibet, and numerous concerts around the country. Moreover, he has proved his versatility by collaborating in performances with Odissi dance, Arabic and Chinese music, jazz, etc, with fabulous results. He also teaches bansuri and Indian classical vocal , as well as teaching Indian music to students of various musical instruments such as violin and bass.

PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS

As a Soloist (Bansuri)
   2006 – Japan concert tour with Pt. Amit Roy and Pt. Anindo Chatterjee
   1998-2006 – Sangeet Mela in Horado, Gifu (all-night Indian classical music conference)
   2000 – Japan Flora Festival in Awaji
   2002 onwards – World Flutes Concert at Xebec Hall (Kobe), Fenix Hall (Osaka), Muse Hall (Sapporo)
   plus several TV and Radio performances

As an Accompanist (Tamboura)
   1993-98 – Pt. Amit Roy concert tour
   1993 – Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia concert tour and recording
   1994 – U. Rashid Khan (vocal) concert tour and recording
   1995 – U. Aashish Khan (sarod) concert tour and recording
   1991-96 – Hiroshi Nakagawa (bansuri) concert tour and recording
   1998 – Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia concert tour

CD RECORDINGS

「 TIBET: Awakened Heart 」aka 「Snow Lion 」(in Japan)
Tenzin Choegyal (Tibetan vocals, flute, dranyen), Taro Terahara (bansuri)

「 Mist – Solo Bansuri 」
Taro Terahara (bansuri), Pt. Anindo Chatterjee (tabla), Yuriko Terahara (tamboura)

「 Air – Solo Bansuri 」
A-003
NADA MUSIC JAPAN
recorded at PROSHAD STUDIO, Kolkata
Taro Terahara (bansuri), Pt. Anindo Chatterjee (tabla), Shoko Sumita (tamboura)

「 The Sound of Mughal Court - ムガールの栄光～アーシシ・カーンのサロード」
KING RECORD KICC 5205
Ud. Aashish Khan (sarod), Pranesh Khan (tabla), Taro Terahara & Izumi Matsumoto (tamboura)

「 The Ecstasy of Raga: Vocal - ラーガ・音の悦楽～声楽　ラシッド・カーン　慈雨」　
APAS-9802
Ud. Rashid Khan (vocal), Tammoy Bose (tabla), Deba Prasad Dey (harmonium), Taro Terahara (tamboura)

「 The Ecstasy of Raga: Bansuri – ラーガ・音の悦楽～バーンスリー ハリプラサード・チャウラースィヤー 献身」
APAS-9803
Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia (bansuri), Subhankar Banerjee (tabla), Taro Terahara , Shouko Kishige, Minehiko Tanaka (tamboura)

「 FOOJEAN 」 HEARTH
Kenji Inoue (sitar), Taro Terahara (bansuri), etc.
Contact: yoshio@lilac.plala.or.jp
FOOJEAN FAX: 03(3307)8990