Yūzō Toyama (外山 雄三, Toyama Yūzō, 10 May 1931 – 11 July 2023) was a Japanese composer and conductor. A native of Tokyo, he was a pupil of Kan'ichi Shimofusa; he studied conducting with Kurt Wöss and Wilhelm Loibner and, like them, later became a conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra. As a conductor he served with numerous orchestras throughout Japan; as a composer his prime influences are Béla Bartók and Dmitri Shostakovich. Mstislav Rostropovich performed the world premiere of the composer's six-movement 1967 First Cello Concerto, a piece described by Gramophone as "attractive", with the additional comment that it "sounds like Japanese folk music rendered orchestral by Kodaly". His best-known work is a Rhapsody for Orchestra based on Japanese folk songs. Toyama won the Suntory Music Award in 1982.
Toyama died on 11 July 2023, at the age of 92.
References
- "Rostropovich The Moscow Recordings". Gramophone. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
- "指揮者・作曲家の外山雄三さん死去 92歳、日本クラシック界率いる". Asahi.com. 13 July 2023. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
External links
- Biography at Naxos.com
- Yuzo Toyama at IMDb
- Yuzo Toyama discography at Discogs
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- 1931 births
- 2023 deaths
- 20th-century Japanese classical composers
- 20th-century Japanese conductors (music)
- 20th-century Japanese male musicians
- 21st-century Japanese classical composers
- 21st-century Japanese conductors (music)
- 21st-century Japanese male musicians
- Composers from Tokyo
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- Japanese male conductors (music)
- Japanese male classical composers
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