is a Japanese lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

 musician. His teachers included lute with Eugen Müller-Dombois and Hopkinson Smith

Hopkinson Smith

Hopkinson Smith is an American lutenist.Born in New York, he graduated from Harvard with Honors in Music...

  at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

Schola Cantorum Basiliensis is a music academy and research institution located in Basel, Switzerland, and focusing on early music and historically informed performance....

, where in 1981 he received his soloist's diploma. In addition, he studied interpretation and thorough bass with Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman is a conductor, organist and harpsichordist.Koopman had a "classical education" and then studied the organ , harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam...

 and Johann Sonnleitner and composition with Wolfgang Neininger.

Imamura has appeared on more than 120 CDs, both as a soloist and as a member of ensembles. His solo recordings include the complete lute works by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

, three volumes of lute sonatas by Silvius Leopold Weiss, pièces pour théorbe by Robert de Visée

Robert de Visée

Robert de Visée was a lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and viol player at the court of Louis XIV, as well as a singer, and composer for lute, theorbo and guitar.-Biography:...

, and the complete lute fantasies by Simone Molinario.

Imamura has collaborated with such artists as Cecilia Bartoli

Cecilia Bartoli

Cecilia Bartoli is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best-known for her interpretation of the music of Mozart and Rossini, as well as for her performances of lesser-known Baroque and classical music...

, Teresa Berganza

Teresa Berganza

Teresa Berganza, born on March 16, 1935), is a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with the roles of Rossini, Mozart, and Bizet. She is admired for her technical virtuosity, musical intelligence and beguiling stage presence.- Biography :...

, Gérard Lesne, Marc Minkowski, Michael Schneider, Martin Gester, Maurice Steger, Masaaki Suzuki

Masaaki Suzuki

is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan.He was born in Kobe to parents who were both Christians and amateur musicians...

, Alan Curtis and Paul Goodwin. Mr. Imamura is a member of La Stagione Frankfurt, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Camerata Köln, Le Parlement de Musique and Il Complesso Barocco.

Imamura created the ensemble “Fons Musicae” in 1997. They have released five recordings - "Airs de cour" (Michel Lambert), and recording dedicated exclusively to works by Giovanni Bononcini, Agostino Steffani, Antonio Caldara and Francesco Gasparini. These recordings have received awards including “Classica” (France) and “Sterne des Monats”.

Imamura teaches lute at the Conservatoire National de Région, Strasbourg since 1984. In 1989, he began teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts

Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts

The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts is a state Hochschule for Music, Theater and Dance in Frankfurt and is the only one of its kind in the Federal State of Hesse. It was founded in 1938....

. He gives master-classes in Europe and throughout the Far East.

Awards

• “Diapason d'Or” prize by French Diapason Magazine (July-August 2006)
• “Joker de Crescendo” prize by the Belgian magazine, Crescendo.(September-October 2008)
• “Cultural achievement award” by the Canton of Solothurn (Switzerland) in 2010.

External links