MAYUZUMI, Toshiro

Toshiro Mayuzumi was born in Yokohama on 20 February 1929. He studied composition with Kunihiko Hashimoto, Tomojiro Ikenouchi and Akira Ifukube at the Tokyo Music School and the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He first came to attention in Japan with his Divertissement pour 10 Instruments, composed in 1948, and internationally in 1950 with the appearance of his work Sphénogrammes, which was selected for performance at the ISCM International Festival of Contemporary Music. In 1952 he travelled to France to study at the Paris Conservatoire, where he was taught by Tony Aubin. After leaving France he pioneered work in Japan in the fields of musique concrète and electronic music. In 1953 he formed the Sannin no Kai (Group of Three) together with Yasushi Akutagawa and Ikuma Dan and established the 20th Century Music Research Institute with leading figures in the Japanese musical world such as Hidekazu Yoshida. While deepening his knowledge and experience of Japanese traditional musical genres such as Gagaku and Shōmyō he also became active as a composer of large-scale film scores. In 1964 he began planning and presenting the long-running Japanese television series Daimei no nai ongakukai (‘Untitled Concerts’). He was appointed lecturer at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and advisor and trustee to the Urasenke Tankōkai Federation. He also held positions including chairman of the Japan Federation of Composers and of the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC).
He was awarded the 7th Otaka Prize for his Nirvana Symphony (Buddhist Cantata) (1958) and the 15th Otaka Prize for his orchestral work Bugaku. His major works include Rumba Rhapsody (1948), Bachannale (1954), Mandala Symphony (1960), Concerto for Xylophone and Orchestra (1965), the operas Kinkakuji (1976) and Kojiki (1993), and the ballets The Kabuki (1986) and M (1993). His works for piano include Prelude, Dance of the Golden Branch and The Bible: In the Beginning. Works by Toshiro Mayuzumi were selected for performance at ISCM festivals in 1956, 1957 and 1963. He was awarded the Music Prize in the Mainichi Film Competition in 1950, 1957, 1963 and 1965, the Mainichi Theatre Prize in 1958, the Blue Ribbon Prize in 1965, the Cultural Award for the Promotion of Buddhism in 1975, and the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1986. He died on 10 April 1997.