橫川 朋弥

Tomoya Yokokawa

Tomoya Yokokawa studied composition at Tokyo Gakugei University, the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, and the Berlin University of the Arts. His teachers included Elena Mendoza, Klaus Lang, Masahiro Yamauchi, Choji Kaneta, and Miyuki Shiozaki.

He has received numerous scholarships and fellowships, including support from the Deutscher Musikrat, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Ad Infinitum Foundation, and the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, which enabled him to undertake a six-month residency at Künstlerdorf Schreyahn in 2023.

Among his distinctions are First Prize at the International Composition Competition Città di Udine (Solo Instrument Category, 2023) and First Prize at the Torre della Quarda International Composition Competition (Chamber Music Category, 2018). In 2023, he was also a finalist for the Claussen-Simon Composition Prize.

For Yokokawa, composition is a dialogue between the innermost self and the invisible—a spiritual and mystical process at the core of his music. Perhaps this is precisely why traditional Japanese music holds a particular significance for him. His first opera, Konjiki Yasha (The Golden Demon), whose musical language draws inspiration from Noh theatre, premiered at Graz Opera in 2018. In 2026, Star picking for the traditional Japanese court orchestra gagaku was premiered at the Mitsukoshi Theater in Tokyo—music that seeks to evoke sounds the world may have forgotten.