Donemus Webwinkel — Mizutani, Shin

Shin Mizutani (M.Mus.) was born in Tokyo in 1991 and began studying the violin at the age of three. After graduating with a bassoon major at the Tokyo University of the Arts High School of Music, he moved to the United States, where he studied the jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music, and later studied music composition and electronic music at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music and the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands. His works were performed at several music festivals/concerts in Japan, the USA, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Russia, China, Thailand, and Brazil.
His String Quartet, “A Study of Difference and Repetition (2015-2016) for String Quartet”, premiered at the Valencia International Performance Academy & Festival 2016 in Spain. In the same year, his chamber work “Quintet (2016) for Flute, Clarinet in A, Piano, Violin, and Violoncello” premiered at Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2016 in Germany. In 2022, his work “A Study of Difference and Repetition (2015-2016) for String Quartet” was selected as one of the concert programs that received the most votes from the jury at the music festival ICE Week 2022 in Germany. Then, in 2023, his work “Fanfara e Allegro (2018) for Woodwind Quarte’ was awarded and reenacted by the ECN European Composers Network.
In 2018, Mizutani was awarded the 1st special prize in the “Città di Udine” International Composition Competition (Italy). In 2019, he was awarded the 1st special prize in the Solo Instrumental Composition Category of ACADEMIA MUSICA, VIENNA, AUSTRIA INTERNATIONAL MUSIC COMPETITION (Austria) and the 2nd prize in the Orchestral Composition Category. In 2020, he was awarded the 2nd prize in the 4th International Sergei Slonimsky Composition Competition (Russia) and the 1st prize in the Ensemble Composition Category of the International Young Musician Competition, the “Città di Barletta” (Italy). He was also nominated for two other categories during the competition. In 2022, he was specially mentioned in the “Andrea Cesaro” Rome Award (Italy). In 2023, he was selected as a finalist in the “Luciano Berio” International Composition Competition (Italy).
In addition to the musical world, his scores and calligraphy are also acclaimed in several different art fields and exhibited at several museums/exhibitions, such as “Musica con Vista (2016)” in Italy and “Northern Disease Exhibition (2016)” in Japan.
Mizutani studied composition with Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, Robin de Raaff, Marc Andre, Stefano Gervasoni, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Milica Djordjević, Philippe Hurel, Daniel d’Adamo, Dimitri Papageorgiou, Panayiotis Kokoras and Rand Steiger, electronic music with Kees Tazelaar and Rene Uijlenhoet, harmony, counterpoint, fugue and general music theory with Rijnhard Bokelmann, Frans de Berg, Theo Verbey, style copy with Arie Boers, music history with Marcel Zijlstra, jazz piano with Francesca Tanksley, music aesthetics and philosophy with Tom Dommisse.
He has worked with several world well-known ensembles, orchestras and musicians, such as Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), KLK Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine), Hatay Academy Symphony Orchestra (Turkey), Klangforum Wien (Austria), Mivos Quartet (USA), Ensemble Dal Niente (USA), Oerknal Ensemble (the Netherlands), Ensemble Phace (Austria) Ensemble Suono Giallo (Italy), Ensemble Linea (France), Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (Russia), Wood Quintet Rosier (Japan), Sapporo Kreis Quartet (Japan) and Tacet(i) Ensemble (Thailand), etc.
Shin Mizutani is now working as an arranger/orchestrator for the Piano Teachers’ National Association of Japan.