Japanese Composer Makoto Shinohara has Died, Aged 92

Shinohara's style drew on that of Bartók, Stravinsky, and Messiaen, while also integrating traditional Japanese instruments into his music

The Japanese composer Makoto Shinohara has passed away at the age of 92.

Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1931, Shinohara studied initially at Tokyo University of the Arts. During this period, he received composition teaching from Tomojiro Ikenouchi, and also studied piano with Kazuko Yasukawa and conducting with Akeo Watanabe and Kurt Woess.

Further study followed in both France and Germany, where his teachers included luminaries such as Olivier Messiaen, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Shinohara received scholarships from the Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes from 1966 to 1967 and from the Italian government in 1969. He won the Rockefeller Prize from the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Centre in 1971 and another scholarship from the Dutch government in 1978.

One of his earliest appointments was as a scientific researcher at the Institute of Sonology Utrecht, and he was later a visiting professor of Japanese and electronic music at McGill University in Canada.

His music drew on the style of twentieth-century composers such as Bartók, Stravinsky, and Messiaen — but in the 1970s and 80s, Shinohara also wrote several substantial works for traditional Japanese instruments, in an attempt to synthesize the two sound worlds.

Shinohara's music was performed at festivals in the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Poland, Austria, and the United States. Some of his best-known works include Obsession (for the National Conservatory of France, 1960), Liberation (for Iranian National Radio, 1977) and Cooperation (for the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, 1990).

Our condolences to Shinohara's family, friends, and colleagues.