ADRIANA FIGUEROA MAÑAS - URUGUAY
BORN 19 OCTOBER
Adriana Figueroa Mañas graduated in 1997 from the school of music of the National University of Cuyo, where she earned the title “Licenciada in Music and Flute”. She completed Master courses in Latino-American music, at the University of Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina and also took several courses in jazz, improvisation, chamber music composition and orchestration, including contemporary orchestration techniques.
Ms. Figueroa Mañas has had works premiered in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Australia, China, Sweden and the United States. She has won composition prizes in Argentina, Italy, the United States and other countries including second prize at the Concurso Internacional de Composición 2 Agosto (2007), honorable mention at the Aliènor Awards, competition for new chamber music, and honorable mention at the Fondo Nacional de las Artes in Argentina.
Adriana is the saxophonist in the “West Jazz Band”, a traditional jazz band that has participated in important performances in Mendoza, as well as jazz festivals in other provinces of Argentina. In addition, she is a member of the International Alliance of Women in Music (IAWM), and of FADEC (Argentinean foundation of woman composers). She has written articles for the several publications, including the IAWM journal.
Adriana currently teaches music, composition, orchestration, flute and saxophone.
♫ LISTEN
Argentia Suite by Adriana Figueiroa Mañas
YOKO SHIMOMURA - JAPAN
BORN 19 OCTOBER
BORN 19 OCTOBER
Yoko Shimomura (born October 19, 1967) is a Japanese composer and pianist, primarily known for her work in video games. Shimomura has worked in the video game industry ever since graduating from the Osaka College of Music in 1988. From then until 1993, she worked for Capcom, where she composed wholly or in part the scores for 16 games, including Final Fight and Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.
From 1993 until 2002, Shimomura worked for Square, where she composed for a further eight games. While working for Square, she was best known for her work on the soundtrack for Kingdom Hearts, which was her last game for the company before leaving. Starting with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga in 2003, she began working as an active freelancer, starting up a music production company called Midiplex. Despite going freelance, she has continued to work on projects for Square Enix, including all of the games in the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as for others such as The 3rd Birthday and Final Fantasy XV.
Her works have gained a great deal of popularity, and have been performed in multiple video game music concerts, including one, Sinfonia Drammatica, that was focused half on her "greatest hits" album, Drammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura, and half on the music of a previous concert. Music from several of her games have been published as arranged albums, and as piano scores.
Shimomura lists Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Maurice Ravel as some of her influences on her personal website. She has also stated that she has enjoyed "lounge-style jazz" for a long time. Despite these influences and her classical training, the diverse musical styles that she has used throughout her career and sometimes in the same soundtrack include "rock, electronica, oriental, ambient, industrial, pop, symphonic, operatic, chiptune, and more". She draws inspiration for her songs from things in her life that move her emotionally, which she describes as "a beautiful picture, scenery, tasting something delicious, scents that bring back memories, happy and sad things... Anything that moves my emotion gives me inspiration".
♫ LISTEN
Vector to the hearts by Yoko Shimomura
Vector to the hearts by Yoko Shimomura
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