July 20, 2010
News for Otakon 2010:
Hiroaki Yura, Hiroki Kikuta, and Shihori to be guests at Otakon
Baltimore, MD (July 19, 2010) – As a special treat, Otakon is pleased to welcome the music supervisor, composer, and singer for our 2010 Opening Animation to this year's convention.
Returning to Otakon is Hiroaki Yura -- the founder of Eminence Symphony Orchestra and the Eminence Artists, and a violin virtuoso. He has performed extensively for heads of state and in competitions around the world, both as a solo or featured artist and as the leader of Eminence Orchestra. Most recently, he has been directing orchestral recordings for interactive entertainment and films, most notably the music for Diablo III, Soul Calibur IV, and The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk. He served as recording supervisor on the new film, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Composer Hiroki Kikuta is best known for his work on Secret of Mana, Secret of Mana 2 and Koudelka. After a brief stint as a manga illustrator, Kikuta applied for a job at Square, where he formed a friendship with Nobuo Uematsu, bonding over shared musical influences. He would go on to compose music for several games while there. After leaving Square, he composed for several other games, though none of them have been released in the U.S. He has since worked as a game director, artistic director, and composer. In recent years he has released several albums of his own work.
Shihori is a singer/songwriter known primarily as part of the classical pop unit Shihori and Asuka. A talented composer and lyricist, she's has written several songs and sung backup for Nana Mizuki, and collaborated with Yoko Kanno on the song "Universal Bunny" for the Macross Frontier movie.
Otakon 2010 will be held July 30 – August 1 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
ABOUT OTAKON AND OTAKORP, INC.: Now entering its seventeenth year, Otakon is an annual celebration of Japanese and East Asian popular culture, and also one of the largest gatherings of fans in the United States. Otakon celebrates popular culture as a gateway to deeper understanding of Asian culture, and has grown along with the enthusiasm for anime, manga, video games, and music from the Far East. Since 1999, Otakon has been held in Baltimore, Maryland; currently, Otakon is one of Baltimore's few large, city-wide events, drawing over 25,000 individual members for three days each year (for a paid attendance of over 70,000 "turnstile" attendees). Otakon is a membership-based convention sponsored by Otakorp, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based, 501(c)3 educational non-profit whose mission is to promote the appreciation of Asian culture, primarily through its media and entertainment. Otakorp, Inc. is directed by an all-volunteer, unpaid staff – we are run by fans, for fans.
For more information about Otakorp, Inc., see http://www.otakon.com/otakorp/index.asp
For more information and the latest news on Otakon 2010, see http://www.otakon.com/
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