Hiroyuki Itoh, composer

Hiroyuki Itoh (b. Sakata, Japan, 1963) received his Ph.D. in music from the University of California, San Diego in 1994. He studied composition with Joji Yuasa, Shin-ichiro Ikebe, Roger Reynolds, and Brian Ferneyhough. His awards include first prize at the Nuove Sincronie International Composition Competition (1995), a Stipendienpreis at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse (1996), and the Akutagawa Composition Award for Orchestral Music, one of the most prestigious composition awards in Japan (1998). Itoh has been commissioned by the Suntory Music Foundation, ZEN-ON Music Publishing, the Izumi & Kioi Halls, Yokohama Cultural Foundation, State Theatre in Cottbus, and the Takefu International Music Festival, among many others. His works have been performed: at festivals such as ISCM World New Music Days (2000 in Luxembourg, 2004 in Switzerland, and 2009 in Sweden), Lucerne, Darmstadt, Gaudeamus, Klangspuren, Rümlingen, June in Buffalo, Music From Japan, Music of Japan Today, Daegu, Akiyoshidai, and Takefu; by ensembles and orchestras such as the Arditti String Quartet, Quatuor Diotima, Klangforum Wien, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Modern, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Ensemble Nomad, Art Respirant, Ensemble Contemporary Alpha, Next Mushroom Promotion, Quartet Excelsior, Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, Vox Humana, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, New Japan Philharmonic, and the Cottbus State Theatre Philharmonic Orchestra; and by soloists such as Nanae Yoshimura (koto), Mayumi Miyata (sho), Naoko Yoshino (hp), Mike Svoboda (trb), Lars Mlekusch (sax), and Tosiya Suzuki (recorder). Itoh’s work has been published by Resolute Music Publications, Zen-On, Ricordi, and the Japan Federation of Composers Inc., and recorded on such labels as Fontec, MusicScape, ALM, Einstein Records, Translive, Telos Music, Genuin, and Stradivarius. Itoh taught at the Takefu International Composition Workshop between 2001 and 2015 as well as the Tokyo University of the Arts as a part time lecturer between 2016 and 2019. He directed “Exhibiting Music” in Tokyo in 2016 and 2017. He served as a jury member at the Akutagawa Composition Award in 2013 and the Music Competition of Japan in 2018 among others. He is a professor of composition at the Music Department of the Nihon University. Itoh currently lives in Tokyo, Japan.