Hiro Fujikake was born in 1949 in
Gifu Prefecture, Japan. In 1964 he began his musical studies at the High School. Later he attended the
Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music in
Aichi where he studied composition for four years to complete his
bachelor's degree. He studied a further three years to get the Master of Music at the same university. Fujikake has won numerous awards for his compositions. Such as the Ongaku-no-tomo Composition Prize for "Two Poems for Chorus" in 1970. The second prize of the
NHK Mainichi Music Competition for "Threnody" in 1974. The All Japan Band Association's Test Piece Composition Prize for "Concertino Overture" in 1975. The Japan Mandolin Union Composition Prize for "Pastoral Fantasy" in 1975. The first prize at the Sasagawa competition for "Nostalgic Rhapsody" in 1975 and "Chaconne" in 1976. Japan Symphony Foundation's Composition Prize for "The Song of Spring" in 1990. The Grand Prix at the
Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Belgium for the symphonic work "The Rope Crest" in 1977. His compositional artwork is characterized by a wide variety of symphonies to operas on ballets, musicals, works for concert band, mandolin orchestra and traditional Japanese instruments, working for the radio, the television, film and for special occasions such as exhibitions such as World Design Exhibition in 1989 in
Nagoya. Besides composer he is also a performing artist of the synthesizer in his solo band named as "Solo Orchestra", which is a synthesizer orchestra directed and controlled by Hiro Fujikake alone assisted by computer. But usually he is accompanied by Japanese taiko drummers, singer, chorus, violinist, flutist, mandolin players, and musicians on Chinese musical instruments, etc. Along with the flutist
James Galway, he has recorded two CDs; the CD
The Enchanted Forest was recorded in 1990 in the United States spent five months in the
Billboard Top 10 of the Classical crossover section. He is a member of the Project Committee of the
Nippon Music Foundation. == Style ==