News Release

The 32nd Yasushi Akutagawa Suntory Award for Music Composition
Yuya Haryu’s A Lost Innocence Chase II for Orchestra

The concert to publicly select the winner of the 32nd Yasushi Akutagawa Suntory Award for Music Composition (formerly, Akutagawa Award for Music Composition) was held at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on Saturday, August 27 at 3pm. The winning composition was Yuya Haryu’s  A Lost Innocence Chase II for Orchestra. He received both an award certificate and cash prize of 1.5 million yen.

Additionally, Chants d’étoileurs for Two Pianos and Orchestra, a work by the 30th award winner Kenta Onoda commissioned by the Suntory Foundation for the Arts to commemorate his winning, had its world premiered on the same day prior to the public concert.

The Yasushi Akutagawa Suntory Award for Music Composition was established by the Suntory Music Foundation (now the Suntory Foundation for the Arts) in April 1990 with the support of the Japan Federation of Composers, and celebrates the achievements of Yasushi Akutagawa (1925-1989), one of the leading Japanese composers of the post-war era. In fond remembrance of the late composer's love of music, his lucid views on music and the passion that he brought to the promotion of music, this composition prize, which was the first of its kind in Japan, is a unique initiative aimed at up-and-coming composers creating orchestral works full of freshness and steeped in potential, with winners selected from among pieces premiered at public concerts. This is a compound award, as　composers winning the prize also receive a commission for a new orchestral work, with the premiered performance held two years thereafter.

In 2019, marked the 50th anniversary of the founding in 1969 of the parent organization of the Suntory Foundation for the Arts, the Torii Music Foundation, and also a change in the name to “the Yasushi Akutagawa Suntory Award for Music Composition,” to make the spirit of the award clearer. At the same time, the prize-money was increased to ¥1,500,000. Going forward we will continue to support the young composers of Japan as they emerge onto a wider stage.

▽The 32nd Yasushi Akutagawa Suntory Award for Music Composition
Yuya Haryu’s Work
A Lost Innocence Chase II for Orchestra

▽Reason for the award
This excellent piece was highly appraised for the musical rendering of its abundant imagination as precise orchestration and clever quotations.

▽Biography
Yuya Haryu was born on August 17, 1995 in Ibaraki Japan and raised in Chiba. He won the Prize at 35th JSCM (Japan Society for Contemporary Music) Award for Composers in 2018 and the 1st Prize at 89th Music Competition of Japan in 2020. He has studied composition with Jummei Suzuki, Mitsuhiro Kosaki, Hiroyuki Yamamoto and Tomoyuki Hisatome. He graduated from Aichi University of the Arts in 2018 and completed his master's degree in composition at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2021. He is the co-chairman of the composition group “Tampopo”.

▽Selection process
1. On Monday, March 7, 2022, the three members of the selection committee, after careful consideration, came to a decision on the three nominated works by online. These were chosen from among orchestral pieces created by Japanese composers that were first performed in Japan or abroad during the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021, based on the music score and the recording of the first performance. The three members of the selection committee were Norio Fukushi, Kenji Sakai, Akiko Yamane. (In alphabetical order)

Makoto Ohata: JINK (2021)
Premiered “Subscription Concert for the Introduction of New Graduates by the Geidai Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo” on May 28, 2021
at Tokyo University of the Arts, Sogakudo Concert Hall

Kohsuke Negishi: Moonlight Hidden in the Clouds for Orchestra (2020)
Premiered “Toru Takemitsu Composition Award 2021 Final Concert” on May 30, 2021
at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall: Takemitsu Memorial

Yuya Haryu: A Lost Innocence Chase II for Orchestra (2020-21)
Premiered“The Museum of Creativity 2021 by the Geidai Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo” on June 4, 2021
at Tokyo University of the Arts, Sogakudo Concert Hall

2. At Suntory Hall Main Hall on Saturday, August 27, 2022, the above three compositions were performed publicly by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yoichi Sugiyama. Following the concert, the three jury members— Norio Fukushi, Kenji Sakai, Akiko Yamane —discussed the compositions publicly (moderated by Yuji Numano) and chose Yuya Haryu’s composition A Lost Innocence Chase II for Orchestra as the winner of the 32nd Yasushi Akutagawa Suntory Award for Music Composition.

3. At the award ceremony held on the stage immediately following the public selection, Suntory Foundation for the Arts Director General, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi delivered the award certificate and cash prize (1.5 million yen).
The Suntory Foundation for the Arts will also commission a new orchestral work to Yuya Haryu which, upon completion, will have its premiered performance at a concert sponsored by the foundation. (Commission fee: One million yen) 

See here for more on the Akutagawa Yasushi Suntory Award for Music Composition
See here about the Suntory Foundation for the Arts