Yasushi Akutagawa (芥川 也寸志 Japanese: Akutagawa Yasushi?, July 12,1925—January 31, 1989) was a Japanese composer and conductor. He was born and raised in Tabata, Tokyo. His father was Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. Akutagawa was taught composition by Hashimoto Kunihiko and Ifukube Akira at the Tokyo Conservatory of Music. He was one of the members of Sannin no kai (The Three) along with Dan Ikuma and Mayuzumi Toshiro. In 1954, when Japan did not have diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union yet, he entered the Soviet Union illegally, and made friends with Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian and Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky. Akutagawa was the only Japanese composer whose works were officially published in the Soviet Union at that time. His works were influenced by Igor Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Akira Ifukube. He was popular as a master of ceremonies of TV shows as well. As an educator, he devoted himself to train an amateur orchestra, Shin Kokyo Gakudan ("The New Symphony Orchestra"). Almost one year after Akutagawa died, in 1990, the Akutagawa composition award was established in his memory.
Selected List of Works
- Préludes pour orchestre symphonique (1947)
- Trinita sinfonica for orchestra (1948)
- La danse for piano (1948)
- Musica per orchestra sinfonica (Music for Symphony Orchestra) (1950)
- Ballade for violin and piano (1951)
- Triptyque for string orchestra (1953)
- Prima sinfonia (1954/55)
- Ellora Symphony (1958)
- Opera "L'Orphee de Hiroshima (Orpheus in Hiroshima)" (1960/67)
- Music for strings no. 1 (1962)
- Ballet suite "The Spider Web" (1968)
- Concerto ostinato for violoncello and orchestra (1969)
- Rhapsodia per orchestra (1971)
- 24 Preludes for piano (1979)
- Allegro ostinato for orchestra (1986)
- Sounds for organ and orchestra (1986)
Film score
- Gate of Hell (1953)
- Portrait of Hell (1969)
