Paul Chihara

Paul Seiko Chihara (born July 9, 1938) is an American composer. Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent several years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho. Chihara received a B.A. and an M.A. in English literature from the University of Washington and Cornell University, respectively. He received a D.M.A in 1965 from Cornell, studying with Robert Palmer. He also studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Ernst Pepping in West Berlin, and Gunther Schuller in Tanglewood. He was the first composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Neville Marriner, and is currently on the music faculty of UCLA, where he is the head of the...