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composer, researcher and educator
Yuko Ohara is a Japanese composer and researcher in contemporary classical music. Her music ranges from solo pieces to orchestral works. Her compositional practice explores relationships between sound, space and structure, with particular attention to instrumental timbre, sonic detail and the physical properties of sound. Her pieces have often drawn on scientific and mathematical concepts, using them as points of departure for the organisation, transformation and development of musical material.
Her recent work has increasingly focused on subtle instrumental sounds, complex rhythms and notational processes, and the ways in which physical gesture can shape musical structure. Alongside her acoustic output, she has developed a strong interest in spatial audio and electroacoustic practice, exploring how amplification and spatialisation can extend the perception of instrumental sound and create new relationships between performers, sound and space.
photo©️marimo images
crystal growth
~for flute, piano, violin and cello~
with light amplification
(world premiere)
31 August 2026 18:45 @ Sonic Lab, SARC,
4 Cloreen Park, Queen's University Belfast
Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble Concert, Conducted by Paul McCusker
Northern Ireland
Essays on Traditional and Avant-Garde Composers: Shifting Paradigms and Multifaceted Identities
by George Holloway (Editor)
Chapter Nine: Yuko Ohara
Introduction to and Analysis of Birefringence
for solo violin
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK
May 2026
ǝsɹǝʌǝɹ engineering
~for piano, mixed media and live electronics~
Contemporary Piano Showcase #3
The piece was commissioned and premiered by Masanobu Shinoda
Monten Hall, Tokyo
17 January 2026
Birefringence
~for solo violin~
Roberto Alonso, violín
The Box, Freespace,
West Kowloon Cultural District
Hong Kong
2 February 2023
broken garage
~for wave field synthesis~
Installation & Lecture
Exploring Creative Processes with the Wave Field Synthesis Collider
Lecture Presentation @ IRCAM FORM Workshops in C-lab, Taipei
7 November 2025
Birefringence II
~for Arditti String Quartet~
Northwestern University New Music Conference NUNC! 4
Premiered by Arditti String Quartet
Irvine Arditti -violin
Ashot Sarkissjan -violin
Ralf Ehlers -viola
Lucas Fels - cello
Online: 24 April 2021
Ascension
~for string quartet~
outHEAR New Music Week
Klangforum Wien & Performance Practice
Sophie Schafleitner - violin
Lea Moullet - violin
Dimitris Polisoidis - viola
Leo Morello - cello
in Contemporary Music at KUG
Larissa Greece
Concert: 10 April 2022