Toshio Hosokawa was born on October 23, 1955 in Hiroshima. He went to West Berlin to study composition with Isang Yun at the Hochschule der Künste in 1976. From 1983 to 1986, he studied with Klaus Huber at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg. In 1980, he participated for the first time in the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, where his work was performed. Since then, Hosokawa has presented his works in Europe and Japan, gaining an international reputation and winning numerous awards and prizes and became a member of Akademie der Künste, Berlin in 2001. He has been invited to nearly all of the major contemporary music festivals in Europe such as the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, as composer in residence, guest composer or lecturer. His first opera, VISION OF LEAR, commissioned by the City of Munich for the festival, was premiered, and highly acclaimed as "a work inspired by the encounter of East and West which has opened up a new musical world." In 2004, his second opera HANJO, commissioned by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, was premiered at the Festival and achieved an overwhelming triumph. Circulating Ocean, commissioned by the Salzburg Festival, was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Valery Gergiev in August 2005. Lotus under the moonlight for piano and orchestra, commissioned by NDR on the occasion of Mozart Year 2006, received its world premiere by Momo Kodama (piano), NDR Sinfonieorchester under the baton of Jun Märkl in April 2006. Since 1998, he has served as Composer-in-Residence at Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Also he is Composer-in-Residence with Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin in the 2006/2007 season and with WDR Rundfunkchor Köln in the seasons 2006-2008. Since 2001, he has served as Music Director for the Takefu International Music Festival. In 2004, he became a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music. Now he is invited as one of the Fellows 2006/2007 by Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and resident in Berlin.