Aya Yoshida is a Japanese composer. Born in Kobe, Japan in 1992 and based in both in Denmark and The Netherlands. She began composing at 6 under the guidance Mrs.Yasuko Osato. She graduated from Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo under the tutelage of composition lecturer Kenya Masakado and Prof.Masaki Norikura in 2014. She also studied composition theory and classical piano performance with Prof. Masaki Norikura. She trained in violoncello and classical vocal with lecturer Yoko Hasegawa and lecturer Kei Yonashiro during her time in Japan. In 2014, she moved to Copenhagen, Denmark and she completed her postgraduate studies in composition with Niels Rosing Schow and Jeppe Just Christensen at The Royal Danish Academy of Music. Her works have been performed in Japan and Europe by diverse range of soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including the performances by Curious Chamber Players in Viitasaari, Finland (2013), by Arditti Quartet (2014) and by Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (2016) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Moreover she just had her very first opera “Skyggen (The Shadow)” in Copenhagen, Denmark on 16th and 17th November 2017 to celebrate the 150th anniversary for the diplomatic friendship between Japan and Denmark following with the official event of the Japanese Embassy in Denmark and the Danish Ministry of Culture. The opera was awarded by Danish Arts Foundation as The best 10 music publishing/releasing of the year. Furthermore she was selected for many Artist in Residencies to participate in, such as the one at the Visby International Centre for Composers (Gotland, Sweden), the one organized by Austrian Federal Chancellery and Kultur Kontakt Austria (Vienna, Austria), the one by USF Bergen (Bergen, Norway) and the one by the providential government of Styria (Graz, Austria). She won the first prize of Zemlinsky 2019 Composition Competition and she had her first ballet piece “Let Me Take You There” premiered by CCM Philharmonia and dancers in Cincinnati, USA in 2021. Also she has been a Composer in Residence in Tivoli Youth Guard in Denmark since 2020 to write for their repertories including 175 years anniversary waltz.
She is often inspired by fashion when she composes her works and her works’ titles are often coming from fashion terms, for example, Polka dots, Tone on Tone Check, and Pointed toe. Fashion, its abstract energy triggers her creativity and transforms it into new images within her personal universe.
She was just selected to one of the 5 nominees for Gaudeamus Award 2023.
