<Dirk DuHei> <Gábor Hollerung> <Wayne Abercrombie> <Earl Rivers> <Ko Matsushita>

Ko Matsushita, clinician
Ko Matsushita is a conductor, composer and lecturer at Kunitachi College of Music. He was born and raised in Tokyo and graduated top of his class from the Kunitachi College of Music, Department of Composition. Upon graduation, he won the Arima Award. He completed a master class for choral conducting at the Kodaly Institute in Kecskemet , Hungary . He has studied composing under Yuzuru Shimaoka, Koichi Uzaki, Thomas Meyer-Fiebig and Mohay Miklos, conducting under Masamitsu Takahashi, choral directing under Janos Remenyi and Peter Erdei and singing under Paula Somoriai.

He is a keen composer and arranger of choral pieces for national audiences in Japan and many of his works have been performed throughout Europe and Asia . He has also made a study of folk music, resulting in works that have been inspired by folkloric elements. His composition "Children's Songs of Ki-no-Kuni" was based on warabeuta - an old children's song from the Wakayama prefecture and was selected and very well received by the television programme "World Modern Music" in the former Yugoslavian Republic . This song was also performed by the girls' choir ELLERHEIN from Estonia in the year 2000 and by the MAGYAR RADIO CHILDREN'S CHOIR in 2001. He also enjoys discovering and performing foreign pieces. The first world premiere for Missa Nona was conducted by him in Tokyo in 2000 and Missa No. 11 in 2002. Both works were commissioned from the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Orban.

His life's work is the study of a method for creating effective harmony based on his theme "A choral practice that fosters ears". He teaches and lectures at chorus workshops and seminars throughout Japan , Taiwan , and Singapore .

He is a jury member of the Japan Choral Association, the NHK Chorus competition and the Choral Works Composing Competition of the Tokyo Cultural Hall. He is the author of a Junior High School music textbook issued by Kyoiku Publishing. In addition, he is a member of the Japan Choral Directors Association, The Japanese Society for the Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, The Japan Kodaly Society and the International Kodaly Society and an Executive Board Member of the Japan Choral Association and the Tokyo Choral Association. He is one of the publishers of the art and culture magazine PRANITZEVO (Serbian Montenegro), a member of the executive committee of the "Ueno no Mori Chorus Park " and a representative of the Choral Expression Workshop.