Daron Hagen is a multi-award-winning creative polymath whose work is internationally acclaimed for its impeccable craftsmanship, social conscience and emotional accessibility. Embracing the Japanese medieval text The Tale of the Heike, Hagen has brought his musical vision as an opera composer to create in Heike Quinto a work that is as grand and emotionally complex as the original on which it is based. Themed around the Buddhist law of impermanence, the story is told through its female protagonists. The unique combination of cello and Japanese koto is layered with a wide variety of vocal textures and effects alongside pre-recorded material helping to create a compelling and expressive narrative.

Daron Hagen is an acclaimed and multi-award-winning composer, performer, writer and filmmaker whose music is performed worldwide, and whose recordings on Naxos are gaining him an increasingly international following. This world-premiere recording of Heike Quinto follows hot on the heels of our release of a ‘skilled and nuanced performance’ (operaramblings) of his cycle The Art of Song (8559919).

Duo YUMENO:
- Yoko Reikano Kimura (voice, koto)
- Hikaru Tamaki (voice, cello)