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Kimula Mika

Kimula Mika
Singer

Kimula specializes in Japanese song - both in the traditional and modern styles - composed during the process of Westernization and modernization of post 19th Century Japan. Involved in theater groups, at age 17 she began to question why there was no convincing usage of the voice and Japanese language in Japanese contemporary theater and music. From this point on, Kimula began exploring various ways to utilize the voice and entered the Vocal Department of the Tokyo National University of Music and Fine Arts where she studied Italian classical and modern songs and performed experimental works using Japanese words and lyrics.

Her interests evolved to Twentieth Century Japanese vocal compositions and traditional Japanese singing styles such as noh chant and nagauta singing. She also studied the Noguchi Taisô body awareness methods with Michizô Noguchi, who taught her how language responds to the voice and one’s inner image of the body.

Presently, Kimula records, lectures, writes and gives workshops throughout Japan, the Americas and Asia. Discography includes a CD released from Teichiku Records, Vocal Music in Twentieth Century Japan--The Inner Revolution between Silk and High Tech. From 1997 to 1998, Kimula was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Chatham College, where she taught both language and music courses. She currently teaches at Ferris Women’s College in Yokohama.