Mutsuhito Ogino

Mutsuhito Ogino was born in Osaka, Japan in 1981. At the age of 18, he joined the Youth For Understanding student exchange program, through which he studied at Tremper High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin. During this exchange year, his first orchestral piece, View, was premiered by the high school orchestra, after which he was advised to pursue music composition at college in the United States. While preparing for two years with studies in English and applications to American universities, Mr. Ogino directed Ensemble Clover, the faculty choir in Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan and worked as a violinist in the Izumi City Orchestra in Osaka. He was then accepted to study at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2003, where he has completed the first year of a Bachelor of Music degree in composition.

Mr. Ogino's music explores the integration of traditional Japanese sound worlds with western musical environments including pop culture. He finds this collision of cultures parallels his own personal experience of living in the United States, resulting in a broadening of both his Eastern and Western perspectives and horizons.

His primary teachers include Mr. Toyoharu Izumi in Osaka, and Mr. Garrett Byrnes, Dr. Cary Boyce, and Professor Don Freund in Bloomington, Indiana. He currently studies composition with Professor Sven-David Sandstr m and organ performance with Professor Larry Smith at Indiana University.