A Japanese composer born January 1st, 1955 in Hiroshima.
Toshio Hosokawa studied the piano, harmony and counterpoint in Japan before becoming a pupil of Isang Yun at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin (1976). He completed his training at the Hochschule für Musik in Fribourg in Brisgau (1983-1986) with Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough. The founder, in 1989, of a contemporary music festival in Akiyoshidai (Japan), he was then appointed composer in residence with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and then director of the International Music Festival in Takefu and was invited to all the leading festivals of contemporary music in Europe.
A synthesis of western and eastern influences, his music, strongly inspired by nô, is characterised by economy of means, relatively slow tempi, as well as by the important role given to silence, to resonance, and to the relationship between sound and corporality.
Between inner journey and the symbolic interpretation of nature, his output includes orchestral pieces (Meditation to the victims of Tsunami 3.11, 2012) and concertos, chamber music (Landscape I for string quartet, 1992; Silent Flower for string quartet, 1998), music for traditional Japanese instruments (New seeds of Contemplation, mandala for shômyô and gagaku orchestra, 1995; Voyage X for shakuhachi and ensemble, 2009), as well as film music and operas (Vision of Lear, 1998; Hanjo, 2004; Matsukaze, 2010; The Raven, 2011).
