Akira Takaoka

Akira Takaoka, born in Tokyo, Japan, is a composer and music theorist. He is currently Research Officer at Columbia University in New York, Lecturer at  Temple University Japan Campus, Lecturer and Research Associate at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering and the Institute of Sensory Robotics, Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan, where he teaches music theory and directs research projects on music information retrieval.His compositions have been selected for performance at major festivals throughout the world such as those of ISCM World Music Days, ICMC, SEAMUS, and SMC. As a music theorist, he specializes in algorithmic composition, atonal theory, and methodological issues such as that of metaphor and has read papers at professional conferences such as those of the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition and the Society for Music Perception and Cognition conference, and ICM.He studied music theory with Jonathan D. Kramer, Joseph Dubiel, and Jeff Nichols, computer music with Brad Garton and Mara Helmuth, composition withMasayuki Nagatomi, Kazumi Yanai, and Joseph Dubiel, piano with Niels Ostbye, musicology with Hiroshi Nakano and Walter Frisch, and philosophy with Akira Oide and Isaac Levi. He received a BA and an MA in philosophy from Keio University in Tokyo, Japan and an MA, an MPhil, and a PhD in music from Columbia University in New York, where he was a Fulbright scholar. Bio courtesy of his website.