Bach-Akademie Meiji Gakuin University Tokyo

... founded in 2000 and since then artistically directed by Prof. Ryuichi Higuchi,, organises up to six concerts every year - not only, but very often with works by J.S. Bach - and this in many large concert halls worldwide, for example at the Bach Festival in Leipzig in 2006 and at the music festival for the 25th anniversary of the Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 2011.

The choir's home, Meiji Gakuin University, was founded in 1863 as a Christian university by James Curtis Hepburn (1815-1911), an American missionary. Meiji, meaning "enlightened rule", characterises the period of the Tenno Mutsuhito and Gakuin means "school". The tenno Mutsuhito ruled from 1868 to 1912 and was responsible for opening up Japan to the West.