The composer Karlheinz Stockhausen – together with five soloists and a sound engineer – will perform a number of his electronic, vocal and instrumental works in Tokyo, Japan, from June 20th through June 26th at the ARTSPHERE Theatre.

In addition, the ARION-EDO Foundation has invited him to give a lecture in English together with the musicians on June 23rd about his work LICHT-BILDER (LIGHT-PICTURES) for basset-horn, flute with ring modulation, tenor, trumpet with ring modulation and synthesizer for the professors and students of the National University of Fine Arts and Music Tokyo.

Following the lecture and concerts in Tokyo, Stockhausen and some of the musicians will visit the ancient imperial city Kyoto, where they will attend several performances of Nô theatre, Kabuki theatre, Bunraku, Shomyo music and Geisha theatre.

In 1977, Stockhausen composed the first part of his work LICHT (LIGHT) The Seven Days of the Week, commissioned by the National Theatre of Japan. He finished LICHT 2004 with the world première of LICHT-BILDER at the Donaueschingen Music Festival. LICHT-BILDER is Work Number 77, and in August Stockhausen will turn 77.

The complete duration of the seven operas of LICHT comprises 29 hours of performance. The European Centre for Culture in Hellerau (Germany) recently announced that it would perform all seven operas, starting in 2008.

(Information: Tokyo Summer Festival, Arion-Edo Foundation.
Tel. +81 3 5465-0755; fax +81-3-5465-0766. www.arion-edo.org)