Yoshihisa Hirano

Biography

Yoshihisa Hirano (平野 義久, Hirano Yoshihisa; born December 7, 1971) is a Japanese composer and arranger. He is best known for composing the scores for anime series, such as Death Note, Hunter × Hunter (2011), Hajime no Ippo and Edens Zero. He has also made the orchestration for video games, mostly in the Final Fantasy franchise.
His musical style combines impressionism and atonal music. He employs techniques such as polyrhythm, tone clusters, polytonality, brass glissandi and polymodal chromaticism to create unique musical textures.

Biography

Yoshihisa Hirano was born in Wakayama, Japan, in 1971. He started to study composition by himself as an elementary student because of his interest for baroque music. He then discovered jazz in high school, and this enthusiasm has shaped his career in music. He mentioned having listened to Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane, among others. His admiration of them once gave him dreams of becoming a jazz musician, but he then discovered contemporary music. He gained interest in the works of John Zorn, one of the musicians who had the biggest influence on him in his youth. On the other hand, symphonies by Shostakovich also greatly impressed him, and helped him make up his mind to study composition seriously.
He moved to the United States and studied composition at Juilliard School, in 1992, with Stanley Wolfe. He later entered Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Christopher Rouse and Joseph Schwantner. Some of the awards he has received include first prize in the Axia Tape Competition, in Japan, during his high school years, and New York's New Music for Young Ensembles.
Hirano made his debut as a composer in 2001, in the anime series Beyblade. After that, he made the music for Tokyo DisneySea's 2002 and 2004 countdown celebrations. In 2002, Hirano paired with pianist Masako Hosoda to form the unit Bleu, releasing 3 albums since then. Hirano was also responsible for some of the orchestration and arrangement for a number of Ali Project's albums.
Since then, Hirano has composed for many anime series, as well as music for concert, dance, film and radio, with compositions ranging from classical to pop and contemporary music.
Although Hirano's style can be considered unique and innovative, he cited the composers Isang Yun, Toru Takemitsu, John Zorn, George Crumb, Olivier Messiaen, Tan Dun, György Ligeti and Maurice Ravel as sources of inspiration.

Classical music

2000 – Variations on the Overture from "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" for Orchestra
2002 – Piano Suite "Le Miracle de la Rose"
2005 – Four Variations on Mahler's "Adagietto" for Chamber Orchestra
2006 – Conte ~ after Kenji Miyazawa's "Night on the Galactic Railroad" for Piano solo
2007 – Variations on a Theme of Paganini for Orchestra
2008 – Death Note Concertino for Concert Band
2009 – Symphonic Suite "Final Fantasy XIII" for Orchestra
2012 – String Quartet "Descending Dragon"
2015 – Piano Sonata
2015 – "San Narciso Capriccio" for Saxophone Quartet
2015 – Exercises Radio Nobles et Sentimentals for Piano Solo
2015 – Nocturne of Princess Tankaku for Piano Solo
2016 – "LIBERAL DANCES" for Saxophone Quartet
2016 – 10 Preludes for Piano Solo
2017 – Symphonic Suite "Hunter x Hunter" for Orchestra
2018 – Picaresque for Cello Solo
2019 – Concerto for Koto and Orchestra "Fukuyama Fantasia"
2022 – "Elegy" for Harp and Contrabass
2024 – Unnamed Piece for Piano Solo
2025 – Rhapsodia Sinfonica HUNTERxHUNTER for Concert Band

Anime

Yoshihisa Hirano has participated in the making of the soundtracks from the following anime works: