Sound and Music

Yuko Ohara was one of the short listed composers for SPNM (Sound and Music) in 2007 and received a commission by SPNM for a project during 2007/08 season as part of the Soundwaves Festival 2008. Her piece, Psychederic Mirage for oboe and electronics, was premiered by Christopher Redgate and Paul Archbold. She is currently studying for a PhD in Performing Arts Research at Brunel University, West London, under the supervision of Christopher Fox.

Yuko studied musicology and composition at Ferris University in Japan, where she completed a Masters Degree and was awarded a distinction in composition and musicology. In 2003, she received a grant to study abroad at the Royal College of Music, London. She completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Composition with Distinction, and won the United Music Publishers Prize for Composition in 2006.

Yuko was one of finalists for the Takefu Composition Award at the Takefu International Music Festival, the Young Composers Workshop at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2006 and the University of Aberdeen Music Prize 2009 with the piece, Shade ←→ Light, for clarinet quintet at the Sound Festival. The piece was premiered by member of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Her pieces have been performed worldwide and also selected for conferences, which are the International Double Reed Society 38th Annual Conference in 2009 (Birmingham, UK) and the International Conference on Contemporary Music in 2010 (La Coruna, Spain). 

Yuko has been collaborating with several ensemble groups and orchestras including Ferris University Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Universal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Contemporary Orchestra. She has studied composition with Haruna Miyake, David Sawer and Richard Barrett and attended composition master classes including ones by Toshio Hosokawa and Brian Ferneyhough.