San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
TAKAE OHNISHI
UC San Diego harpsichordist is finding new ways to interpret old music
Harpsichordist Takae Ohnishi plays an instrument that was most popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. And while she actively spreads the word and shares the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and other composers of that era, Ohnishi lives very much in the present. ■ “We are creating a 21st-century practice with old music,” she said. “We’re in a different moment in history. I’m always looking for new ways to perform old music.”
But early on, Ohnishi also wanted to explore playing modern music with the harpsichord and left her home country of Japan in 1998 to study the instrument in both realms. She earned a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and a doctorate from New York’s Stony Brook University.
She now teaches harpsichord and baroque chamber music at UC San Diego and finds creativity in both contemporary and early music.
“Baroque music changes quickly,” Ohnishi said, speaking from her Carmel Valley home. “I enjoy short pieces with a lot of variety. A baroque score looks empty compared to one from the
classical romantic period. The half notes let us improvise on it. I really enjoy that. I play differently each time — depending on who I’m playing with and what instruments they are playing.
“I like freedom, and baroque pieces give you freedom. It’s like jazz, especially when you’re in an ensemble. Baroque music gives you a lot of room to improvise.”
She is scheduled to perform with friends on May 30 at the San Diego Museum of Art. And as a member of the Ritornello Baroque Collective, she will appear on April 24 at Point Loma Assembly. A previously scheduled May 2 concert at UC San Diego has been canceled due to COVID-19.
For the May 30 concert, Ohnishi will be joined by Chialing Chien, the associate principal cellist for the San Diego Symphony. Since they met at a recording session in 2011, they have frequently collaborated.
“Takae has always been a gracious friend, and it reflects in her music-making,” Chien said. “Her warmth always brings out the best in people, and it can easily be heard in her playing.”
Besides performing and teaching, Ohnishi recently founded the nonprofit San Diego Musical Offering. The title is inspired by one of Bach’s last and most renowned pieces.
The goals of the group include bringing pre-18th-century music to the local community, organizing an early-music festival in San Diego, and presenting an annual baroque chamber orchestra concert at UC San Diego.
This year, Ohnishi will be re-teaming with former San Diego Symphony violist Che-yen “Brian” Chen, now a UCLA professor. With a 2016 album under their belt, the two will record Bach’s six sonatas for viola and harpsichord. They will perform over the next three years at Cuyamaca College’s Echo Chamber
Music series.
The recent and future flurry of activity for Ohnishi is not accidental. She’s been teaching at UC San Diego since 2007, when she and her husband, award-winning composer Lei Liang, moved here. But she slowed down on other musical endeavors to focus on raising their son, Albert, now 10.
The first of many compositions Liang wrote for Ohnishi was “Some Empty Thoughts of a Person From Edo.” Written when she was a student in Boston, it showcases her mastery of the harpsichord and the instrument’s untapped potential.
“When Lei wanted me to share work with him, I had no time,” Ohnishi recalled. “Once we collaborated, I saw that there are many opportunities on harpsichord. He created techniques that I’d never seen.”
Chien, Ohnishi’s colleague, isn’t surprised by her ability and desire to experiment.
“Takae is a great and versatile musician, capable and proficient in any style or genre,” Chien said. “She once told me: ‘Music is music. It does not matter which period it belongs to.’ ”