Toshio Hosokawa

Toshio Hosokawa (細川 俊夫, Hosokawa Toshio, born 23 October 1955 in Hiroshima, Japan) is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music.^[1]

Biography

Hosokawa studied with Yun Isang at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 1998, Hosokawa has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, Hosokawa became a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music. In 2001, Hosokawa became a member of Academy of Arts, Berlin.

Invited by Walter Fink, he was the 18th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2008, in chamber music, played by the Arditti Quartet and Mayumi Miyata (Shō), and the oratorio Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Cologne conducted by Rupert Huber.^[2]

Awards and honors

Hosokawa has received the following awards and honors.

• First Prize in the Composition Competition which marked the 100th Anniversary of the Berliner Philharmoniker (1982)
• Rheingau Musikpreis (1998)
• Duisburger Musikpreis (1998)
• musica viva-Preis der ARD und BMW AG (2001)
• the 39th Suntory Music Award (2007)

Compositions

Opera

Oratorio

• Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima for soloists, narrators, chorus, tape (ad lib.) and orchestra (1989/2001) after Matsuo Bashō, Paul Celan and Genbaku no Ko^[3]

Orchestral

• Preludio (1982)
• In die Tiefe der Zeit (Into the Depths of Time)
• Ferne Landschaft I (a work commissioned by Kyoto city. 1987, Kenichiro Kobayashi & Kyoto Symphony Orchestra.)
• Ferne Landschaft II (a work commissioned by the Gunma Symphony Orchestra. 1996, Ken Takaseki & Gunma Symphony Orchestra.)
• Ferne Landschaft III-seascapes of Fukuyama (a work commissioned by Fukuyama city. 1996, Naohiro Totsuka & Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra.)

Orchestra, Koizumi, Kazuhiro conductor.

• Circulating Ocean (2005)
• danses imaginaires (2007)
• Woven Dreams (2009–10)
• Meditation (2011–12) to the victims of Tsunami (3.11)

Concertante

• Flute Concerto Per Sonare (1988)
• Cello concerto (1997)
• Voyage II for bassoon and ensemble (1997)
• Horn Concerto Moment of Blossoming (2010)

Chamber music

• Landscape V for shō and string quartet (1993)
• Silent Flowers for string quartet (1998)
• Deep Silence (2002), duets for shō (bamboo mouth organ), and accordion in the Gagaku style, including:
  • Cloudscapes - Moon Night
  • Wie ein Atmen im Lichte after a drawing of Rudolf Steiner
  • Sen V
• Blossoming for string quartet (2007)
• Lied II (リート Ⅱ) for viola and piano (2008)
• Für Walter for soprano saxophone and piano, percussion ad libitum (2010), dedicated to Walter Fink for his 80th birthday^[4]
• Spell (呪文) for violin solo (2010)
• Lullaby of Itsuki: from Japanese Folk Songs (五木の子守歌 −日本民謡より−) for violin and piano (2011)
• Threnody: To the Victims of the Tōhoku Earthquake 3.11 (哀歌 −東日本大震災の犠牲者に捧げる−) for viola solo (2011)
• Water of Lethe for Piano Quartett, composed 2016 for Fauré Quartett supported by Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung

Vocal music

• "Renka I" for soprano and guitar (1986)
• "Three love songs" for voice and alto saxophone (2005)
• "Drei Engel-Lieder" for soprano and harp (2014)

Choral music

• "Ave Maria for 16-part mixed choir a cappella (1991) ^[5]

References

Further reading

• Narazaki, Yoko. 2001. "Hosokawa, Toshio". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

External links

• Toshio Hosokawa on Naxos site
• Toshio Hosokawa on Neos site, a label for Contemporary Music
• Toshio Hosokawa on Schott Music site
• Toshio Hosokawa on agent's site
• "biography" (in French). IRCAM.  including a detailed list of works
• interview by Fabrizio Rota