Hikaru Hayashi studied composition with Hisatada Otaka. He also studied with Tomojiro Ikenouchi at the Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1953 he established the “Pan Group” together with Michio Mamiya and Yuzo Toyama and in the same year, his Symphony in G was awarded the National Arts Festival Award. In 1956 the “Variations for Orchestra” won the 4th Otaka Prize, in 1961 the music for the film “The Island” won the composition prize at the Moscow International Film Festival 1961, and in 1996 the Viola Concerto “Elegia” won the 44th Otaka Prize. Hayashi’s compositions are extremely diverse, and many of them have a social message, such as the choral “Scenes from Hiroshima”. Another of Hayashi’s major interests is how to create a natural link between music and the Japanese language, and as the music director and composer in residence at the Opera Theater Konnyaku-za Hayashi won the Suntory Music Prize. He has composed a large number of operas, such as “I am Cat” (Soseki Natsume), “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” (Brecht), “Gauche, the Cellist” (Kenji Miyazawa), “The Forest is Alive” (Marshak), and “Metamorphosis” (Kafka).
