Hiroaki Zakoji

Hiroaki Zakōji (座光寺 公明, Zakōji Hiroaki, born January 20, 1958 – January 29, 1987) was a Japanese composer and pianist.

He was born in Tokyo on January 20, 1958. He was brought up in Hokkaidō from the age of 4 and lived there until he was 20 years old. He started learning to play the piano when he was 4 years old. From the age of 16, he studied composition under Masanobu Kimura.

In 1978, he entered the Music Department of Nihon University in Tokyo. There he learned composition under Kiyohiko Kijima and piano under Midori Matsuya (1943-1994). At the same time, he also studied composition under Roh Ogura (1916-1990) in Kamakura.

He graduated from university and entered the Music Institute of Nihon University in 1982. In the same year, he organised the Tokyo Shin-Wagaku Consort which regularly played his own and other contemporary composers' music.

In 1984, he performed Japanese contemporary works in Basel, Switzerland. In 1985, he was invited by the IGNM - Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik - and performed his "Piano Piece I" (Op.28) in Basel. In April 1986, he returned to Switzerland where he composed and performed his "Piano Piece III" (Op.36) in Arlesheim near Basel. Also he travelled to Spain and Denmark and wrote an essay for a music journal. "Composition II" (Op.11) and "Composition" III (Op.13) were broadcast by a Spanish radio station.

In June 1986, he was one of the finalists in the Buddhist International Music Competition in Tokyo and his "Continuum" (Op.18) was given its first performance by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under Hiroyuki Iwaki (1932-2006).

He died just 9 days after his 29th birthday by acute cardiac failure on January 29, 1987 in Tokyo. He left 38 works in his short life of 29 years. All his scores and some music tapes are preserved in the Documentation Centre for Modern Japanese Music in Tokyo.

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