SHIGERU IKUSHIMA⸻

Shigeru Ikushima began learning the violin at the age of seven, followed by the clarinet at twelve. He then joined Kunitachi College of Music, where he took classes with Y. Ohashi and N. Ogasawara. 

Awarded a French state scholarship, he studied in Rouen, where he obtained first prizes in clarinet and chamber music, and was tutored by J. Lancelot, W. Boeykens and R. Flachot in chamber music. He won the French Ministry of Culture’s soloist competition. 

As the solo clarinettist of the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, he has given concerts in many European countries, as well as in Turkey and Israel. Shigeru Ikushima has also been a member of the Cleveland Quartet. 

In 1974, he joined the Toulouse Capitole National Orchestra as solo clarinettist, becoming the first Japanese wind instrumentalist to join a French orchestra. For 21 years, he took part in tours with this orchestra all over the world, and recorded over 70 albums for EMI, CBS and DG. He is also a member of the Toulouse Wind Quartet, with which he played a series of concerts in Japan in 1992, which were universally acclaimed by the critics. A record was released of these performances. 

Shigeru Ikushima was a member of the jury at the Brussels International Music Competition in 1990, and the International Clarinet Congress in Paris in 1996.

After his debut recitals in Japan in 1983, he was invited back every year for concerts, recordings, and other events. He took up a post as assistant professor at Kunitachi College of Music, and decided to return to live in Japan, after more than 26 years in France.