Biography

Takuma Itoh (b. 1984) spent his early childhood in Japan before moving to Northern California where he grew up. Currently a student at Cornell University, he has attended the University of Michigan (M.M.) and Rice University (B.M.), and has studied with composers Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, Kevin Ernste, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Shih-Hui Chen, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert, and Karim Al-Zand.  His music has also been performed by ensembles such as the Albany Symphony with the Chimeng Quartet, New York Youth Symphony with the Shanghai Quartet at Carnegie Hall, Haddonfield Symphony (now Symphony in C), St. Lawrence Quartet and the Stanford Philharmonia Orchestra, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Cornell Chamber Orchestra, Cornell Wind Ensemble, Pioneer Valley Symphony, H2 Saxophone Quartet, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and violinist Joseph Lin. He is the recipient of three Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (including the 2010 Leo Kaplan Award given to the highest scoring winner), the American Composers Orchestra 2008 Underwood New Music Readings, Haddonfield Young Composer Competition, New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, Renée B Fisher Composer Commission, Pioneer Valley Symphony Young Composers Competition, and Russell Horn Voices of Change Young Composer Award.  He has also been a fellow at the Pacific Music Festival and the Aspen Music Festival, Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum of the East, Highpoint Music, and an associate artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and has had the opportunity to work with George Tsontakis, Detlev Glanert, Christopher Rouse, Marc André-Dalbavie, Sydney Hodkinson, Donald Crockett, and Stephen Jaffe.  His music has been published by Theodore Presser, and his Echolocation has been recorded by the H2 saxophone quartet on their new CD, Times and Spaces. He enjoys playing jazz piano and has studied with Geri Allen.