Yuri Kasahara
|
|
Yuri Kasahara (笠原 ゆり Kasahara Yuri) is a Japanese opera singer.
Kasahara is a graduate of Tokyo's "Star Woman High School of Urawa", with self-education in the Toho Gakuen School of Music, majoring in singing, minoring in piano. During university attendance, Yuri went full-throttle on her major, and continued her studies post-graduate. During her studies, she debuted in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the Samita Hall. Simultaneously, she recorded several television CM tunes. (To this date, she has sung over 100 songs for commercials.)
In 1989, she was the part of the Queen of the Night in a production of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at the Shinjuku Cultural Center. Following, she was in Cemellia Princess and Hendel and Grey. In addition, she has performed a multitude of operettas for countless concerts. Many concerts featured incredibly difficult melodies. Because of her excellent execution of every perfomance, she has received high appraisal for her beauty, charm and amazing vocal technique.
In 1990, Yuri crossed over from Japan to Italy for further operatic studies. She passed many auditions for operas, performed in music festivals, and was regarded as one of Japan's finest vocalists. Several years passed by, and she returned home, with further confidence for the Japanese stage.
In 1994, she went with the Japanese Performance Association to a French music competition, and won first prize. During the same year, she performed in the Toho Gakuen School of Music's 30th anniversary ceremony as one of the top students. In addition, Ms. Kasahara also went and performed in the Coca-Cola Special Musical Opera (also known as "The Magic of Coke", with a nationwide performance).
She most recently has been writing lyrics for operas, obtaining high appraisal for her work in the entire musical score for Love Believing. She has also worked on the music and script for Douro no Aka SHOES and the Yokohama fairytale opera-adaptation Aoi Hitomi. All of her works have been performed in multiple opera circuits in Asia. Also, she has been noted for working with Yuki Kajiura on the television animations Noir, Aquarian Age ~ Sign for Evolution, and the OVA .hack//Liminality. Yuri makes a cameo with Emily Bindiger on a remix of the .hack//SIGN song "The World", and has been spotted frequently as a guest vocalist with See-Saw. Ms. Kasahara also makes an appearance on Yuki's solo album Fiction, singing a redone version of "Salva Nos" (from Noir) and a new song "Red Rose".
Yuri Kasahara has recorded her own 2-disc album entitled "An Encounter" featuring several of her most famous non-anime related performances, re-recorded with the Tokyo Konsei, and is currently being featured as a vocalist for the Madlax soundtrack.
External links
- Home Page (http://otono-ehon.com/kasaharaholder/kasaharanewtop.htm)
- Page of Yuki Kajiura's vocalists (http://www.fictionjunction.com/fjcome/fictionM.html)