TANI, KAORU
Kaoru Tani was born in Fukuoka (Japan) in 1987.
In 2010, Kaoru received a bachelor’s degree in vocal music at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo. During her years at Kunitachi, she sang in various vocal ensembles and pursued a growing interest in choral conducting.
Upon finishing her bachelor studies in Tokyo, she moved to Austria to study choral and orchestral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (from 2011 to 2014) and choral conducting, under the tutelage of Johannes Prinz, at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz (from 2014 to 2017). During these years, she had the pleasure of singing with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and the Wiener Singverein. She returned to Japan after receiving an MA in music in September 2017. She was able to pursue her final year of study abroad under the auspices of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the government of Japan.
Kaoru studied vocal music with Shoko Sakamoto, Naoko Ihara and Kyoko Akiba in Japan, and Helena Dearing and Maria Loidl in Austria. She studied orchestral conducting with Chikara Imamura, Yuji Yuasa and Uroš Lajovic, and choral conducting with Tetsuro Hanai, Erwin Ortner and Johannes Prinz.
During her years in Europe, she participated in numerous master classes under fine teachers such as Morten Schuldt-Jensen, Simon Halsey, Daniel Reuss, Hans-Christoph Rademann and Josep Vila i Casañas.
Kaoru was awarded 2nd Prize in the 5th Competition for Young Choral Conductors at Tokyo Cantat 2016 and honourable mentions and Best Performance of Renaissance Music at the 7th International Conducting Choir Competition “Towards Polyphony” in Wroclaw, Poland, also in 2016. As part of the special award, she had the opportunity to conduct the NFM Choir in Wroclaw in February 2018.
In 2020, as the Covid pandemic took hold, we established “initium; auditorium” — a music-distribution platform that permits us to explore new and innovative ways to make music with our colleagues and share it in the form of audio-visual works of art.
Kaoru is presently a leading conductor of three choral groups based in Japan: vocalconsort initium, Projektchor Philharmonia, Tokyo Bay Youth Choir and the Hugo Distler Vokalensemble.