Toru Kaku
Baritone
Toru Kaku is from Fukuoka Prefecture. He completed a master’s degree at the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School, graduating top of his class and receiving the Graduate School’s Acanthus Prize. Kaku also completed a training course at the Tokyo Nikikai Opera Foundation’s training institute, where he was the selected representative of the students completing the course. He was also awarded the Best Performance Prize and the Shizuko Kawasaki Award. Kaku placed 2nd at the 20th Yuai German Lied Competition. He also won the Best Japanese Song Prize and the Richard Strauss Gesellschaft Japan (Richard Strauss Society of Japan) Prize. Kaku specializes in singing songs from around the world. During the recital series organized by the Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation, he performs to full houses in both Tokyo and Fukuoka, delivering a polished performance of songs in 10 different languages. He has received much acclaim for his performances of Baroque era pieces and has performed many times as a soloist at Bach Collegium Japan Concerts.As an opera singer, he has performed a wide range of roles, appearing in concerts by the Nissay Theatre as the title role in Don Giovanni and as “Enrico” in “Lucia di Lammermoor”. He has also taken the stage with the Nikikai as “Tsurukawa” in “Kinkaku-ji”, and as “Number one” in “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea”. In a Nikikai performance of “Lulu”, Kaku won praise for his expressive delivery after stepping at short notice into the difficult role of “Dr. Schön”. On television, he has appeared on various programs including in NHK-FM’s “Recital Nova”, TV Asahi’s “Untitled Concert” and “Sukusku Kodosate”, a program for parents and their young children on NHK’s educational channel.Kaku has also appeared in a television commercial for Figaro Engineering Inc., a manufacturer of breathalyzers.In 2023, he released his fourth album, “A Time for Us”. Kaku is a part-time lecturer at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music and a member of the Nikikai.
CHANEL Pygmalion Days 2014 Artist.
(As of November 2023)
CHANEL Pygmalion Days 2014 Artist.
(As of November 2023)
