Tohru Kanayama

Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1960, he played trumpet and euphonium in his elementary school brass band and clarinet in his junior and senior high school brass bands. After graduating from Musashino Academia Musicae, he has participated in musical performances, concerts, and recordings as a multi-reed and keyboardist. He has also worked as a composer and arranger on concerts and albums for many artists, including 20th Century (V6), Kinki Kids, Hikaru Genji, and Shonentai.

His works, primarily for wind and brass bands, have been published by Easter Music Publishing, Wind Art Publishing, Windscore, Nexus Music Publishing, Foster Music, Brain (Bravo Music), Bell Music Press, Molenaar Editions (The Netherlands), Yamaha Music Media, and Rocket Music (in alphabetical order), and he has also composed and arranged for recordings, competitions, concerts, stage performances, and films. He has also provided compositions and arrangements for groups such as the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, Siena Wind Orchestra, Koedo Wind Ensemble, Blitz Philharmonic Winds (Blitz Brass), Soai University Wind Orchestra, and Ryukoku University Wind Orchestra. In recent years, he has also provided arrangements for Taiwan and China.

He studied clarinet with Kunio Chiba, Yuji Murai, Shingo Kashino, and Hajime Nishimura. Although he studied composition with Kazuhide Ikeda and Satoru Ikeda, he is largely self-taught.

He is the general producer of the Ekoda Musical Instrument Festival and the Umeda Musical Instrument Festival.

He presides over the Koedo Wind Ensemble.