Kitaro

With the stage name Kitaro, Japanese composer and musician Masanori Takahashi is regarded as one of the primary figures in new age music. He has won international fame for his recordings, concerts, screen composing and collaborations with many other artists. He has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards for Best New Age Album from 'Dream' in 1992 to his 2017 release 'Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Volume 5'.

Born in central Japan, he learned to play the guitar as a young man, tried the synthesiser and switched to keyboards in the 1970s. After a stint with a Japanese group called Far East Family Band, which produced two albums, he began his solo career. He wrote and performed the music for a Japanese television documentary series titled 'The Silk Road: The Rise and Fall of Civilisations' and for several other screen productions including Oliver Stone's 1993 Vietnam War film 'Heaven & Earth' for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score to a Motion Picture.

Kitaro has collaborated with Mickey Hart, Jon Anderson, Marty Friedman and many other artists. He has had 12 songs on Billboard's New Age Albums Chart starting with 'Kojiki' which went to number one in 1990. 'Live in America' (1991), 'Dream' (1992) and 'Mandala' (1994) all reached number three. 'An Enchanted Evening' (1995), 'Peace On Earth' (1996) and 'Gaia Onbashira' peaked at number four.