Ryokan Yamakata

was born in Tokyo (Japan). Since 2008 he lives with his parents in Krefeld.
He began playing the piano at the age of three with his mother being his tutor. He began playing the violin at the age of four. During this time he began composing light pieces.
From 2013-2016 he took lessons in David Graham's composition class at the Clara-Schumann-Musikschule in Düsseldorf. Björn Raithel has been teaching him since 2016. He has also attended numerous composition workshops.
Since 2013 he has regularly taken part in composition competitions and he has received prizes and awards: Verträumt und zueckt (MDR Children's Choir), Siegburger Kompositionswettbewerb, as well as at the competition Jugend komponiert at state and national level.
His song Ich weiß nicht, was meine Mama träumt was premiered in 2014 in Dresden-Hellerau.
In the same year he took part in a composition competition for chamber music. He won with his piece Chaos auf den Spielplatz with the instrumentation being percussion, piano and double bass. He was also invited to take part in a composition workshop in Dessau-Roßlau. There the chamber musicians of Saxony-Anhalt premiered his piece.
In May 2016, a somewhat older piece was premiered by him as part of the Orchesterwerkstatt Halberstadt competition. He was also allowed to take part in a four-day workshop in Halberstadt. He attended another workshop in Weikersheim after receiving a prize in the Jugend komponiert Bundeswettbewerb competition.
In 2016 and 2018 he took part in the Siegburger Kompositionswettbewerb, as well as in 2017 in the Landeswettbewerb Jugend komponiert and received one prize each.