Hikaru Hayashi
Japanese composer, pianist, conductor and author Hikaru Hayashi was born in Tokyo on 22 October 1931. He didn’t complete his composition studies at Tokyo University of the Arts, but studied with Hisatada Otaka and was active, producing many compositions for piano, but also orchestral works, concertos, chamber music, band music, film scores and more than thirty Japanese language operas. In 1953, Hayashi co-founded the “Goat Society.” The aim of the society was to develop a new form of Japanese classical music different from wartime ultranationalist music. In 1960, Hayashi helped co-found the Seinen Geijutsu Gekijō (“Youth Art Theater”), which was one of the earliest theatre troupes in the Angura movement of radical, “underground” avant-garde theatre. Beginning in the late 1950s, Hayashi became increasingly known for his innovative film scores, especially as part of his long-running collaboration with Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindo, beginning with his scoring of Shindo’s film Daigo Fukuryū Maru, (“Lucky Dragon No. 5,” 1959), which was based on the Lucky Dragon No. 5 nuclear fallout incident of 1954. Ultimately, Hayashi would go on to craft scores for more than 100 films. His books include Nihon opera no yume (‘The Dream of Japanese Opera’). He won the thirtieth Suntory Music Award in 1998.
Chiku Komiya
Chiku KOMIYA was born in Kanagawa, Japan, in 1993. He is a graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts with both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Music and Composition (Masters in Music Research). He designs computer works to generate a rethinking of the relationship between composition and performance. In his acoustic compositions, live electronics and sound installations, the act of performing itself engenders a fresh new sense of the player’s body in performance.
Michiru Nakamura
Michiru Nakamura (B. 1998) is a graduate of the Tokyo University of the Arts Composition Department, where she received both an undergraduate and master’s degree. She has studied composition and music theory with Kenji Matsumoto, Hisako Imamura, Toshiya Watanabe and Misato Mochizuki. Her recent work explores unique properties of Japanese speech and how these may translate into musical devices that bring out different kinds of cross-ensemble communication as well as the physicality of the performers. Nakamura was nominated for the 38th Japan Society for Contemporary Music Award for Composers and in 2023 was a recipient of the Kuma Foundation Creator Scholarship.
Madoka Mori
Madoka Mori is a 2023 Asian Cultural Council Fellow. She won the 2nd prize of the 83rd of Music competition of Japan at the age of 20 and this piece led to the discovery by Toshi Ichiyanagi. She is the youngest recipient of the Toshi Ichiyanagi Contemporary Prize. Her orchestral works, including Double Concerto Janus (2020, commissioned by Suntory Hall) and Atrium for cello and orchestra (2014/2018, award-winning work), have been performed by major orchestras such as Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra. Her notable commissioned chamber works include Waka for violin, cello, and koto (2025, by Interwoven / Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art Project) and Phoenix for solo cello (2022, by Michiaki Ueno / Tokyo Opera City Project), which was released by the French label La Dolce Volta on the album Origin. She is committed to cross-genre artistic creation and produced and composed a collaborative project which was selected for the Suntory Hall Recommendation Concert 2023. The performance and autographed score were exhibited with sculptures by Susumu Koshimizu and were presented by Tokyo Art Gallery + BTAP. She graduated from and served as a lecturer at Toho Gakuen School of Music.
Somei Satoh
Born in Sendai, Japan in 1947, Somei Satoh is a primarily self-taught musician, strongly influenced by the traditional Japanese music and dance to which he was exposed during childhood. To the musical elements of his native country he has added the underlying philosophies of his world have been shaped by both Shintoism and Buddhism, his methods have been influenced by the multimedia forms and events of the 1960’s. Mr. Satoh first worked professionally in 1969 with Tone Field, a Tokyo-based experimental mixed-media group. In 1972 he produced a multi-media arts festival entitled Global Vision” He won a Japan Arts Festival prize in 1980 and in 1983 received a visiting artist’s grant from the Asian Cultural Council to work in the United States for one year. Music From Japan presented the American premiere of Mr. Satoh’s orchestral work, “Lyra,” in a 1983 Carnegie Hall concert. His 50 or so compositions include pieces for theatre, orchestra, piano, and chamber and choral ensembles and electronic and traditional Japanese instruments. He records for ALM label (Japan) and New Albion (USA).
Shintaro Shibayama
Shintaro Shibayama grew up studying piano and cello. He began composition studies at the Aichi University of the Arts before transferring to the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He studied composition with Hiroyuki Yamamoto and Jummei Suzuki. Shibayama is a recipient of the 36th Japan Society for Contemporary Music Prize as well as the Doseikai Prize. He is currently a lecturer at the Showa University of Music where he teaches Musical Forms Theory, succeeding Jo Kondo.
