Toshi Ichiyanagi (b. 1933, Kobe, Japan) is a composer and major figure in the postwar Japanese avant-garde scene and international Fluxus movement. He studied composition with Vincent Persichetti at the Juilliard School and enrolled in John Cage’s composition courses at the New School for Social Research. From Cage, Ichiyanagi discovered how to open his music up to new influences while remaining true to his Japanese heritage. During the 1960s, Ichiyanagi adopted aleatoric and indeterminate methods of composition and participated in concerts, happenings, and events at the influential Sogetsu Center for the Arts in Tokyo. Following his second visit to the United States on a Rockefeller grant (1966–67), he debuted the minimalist work Piano Media (1972). In the early 1980s, Ichiyanagi’s work began to emphasize a fusion of traditional Japanese and Western music. Through various commissions by the National Theater of Japan, Ichiyanagi composed new works for traditional ensembles (gagaku, reigaku, shomyo). Since 1995, he has composed four operas. He is the recipient of the 33rd Suntory Music Award (2001) and was honored with Japan's Order of Culture in 2008.
