Yuzo Toyama was born in Tokyo in 1931. He studied composition under Kan-ichi Shimofusa, a pupil of Hindemith and a conducting student of Kurt Wss and Wilhelm Loibner, both of whom conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo in the 1950s. Toyama has served as the principal conductor of a number of orchestras in Japan. As a composer he has been under the influence of Bartk and Shostakovich in particular, and like Kodly he attaches great importance to the use of folk melodies in his works.
