is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

composer, conductor, and

orchestrator Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

based in Hollywood,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. He left his birth nation of Japan at the age of 16 to attend the

Interlochen Arts Academy Interlochen Center for the Arts is a non-profit corporation which operates arts education institutions and performance venues in northwest Michigan. It is situated on a campus in Interlochen, Michigan, roughly southwest of Traverse City. ...

Interlochen Interlochen ( ') is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Grand Traverse County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the population was 694, up from 583 at the 2010 census. The community is located wit ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. He later attended the

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educatio ...

and the

USC Thornton School of Music The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los An ...

. His works include the original scores for ''Bean Cake'', ''Ocha Cups for Christmas'', ''One'', '' Afrika'', and '' Soul Sacrifice''. In 2008, Hokoyama composed, orchestrated, and conducted all the music for the video game '' Afrika''. The soundtrack was released in Japan. The music was awarded Best Original Video Game Score by The Hollywood Music Awards 2008. Movie Music UK has the only review of the soundtrack and gave it 4.5/5.0, saying "Hokoyama has left a strong impression with the wonderful music he has composed. This is a soundtrack you cannot pass up." In 2009, Hokoyama provided a few orchestral cues for cutscenes in ''

Resident Evil 5 ''Resident Evil 5'' is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. It is a major installment in the ''Resident Evil'' series, and was announced in 2005—the same year its predecessor ''Resident Evil 4'' was released. ' ...

''. Following that, Hokoyama then co-composed, orchestrated, and conducted the music for the 2013 PlayStation Vita game, '' Soul Sacrifice''. He was assisted on the project by

Yasunori Mitsuda is a Japanese composer, musician, and sound producer. He is best known for his work in video games, primarily for the ''Chrono'', '' Xeno'', ''Shadow Hearts'', and ''Inazuma Eleven'' franchises, among various others. Mitsuda began composing musi ...

. He would later rejoin Mitsuda to help compose new music for the sequel, '' Soul Sacrifice Delta''. Also in 2013, he contributed some music and co-orchestrated the soundtrack to the PlayStation 4 game, '' Knack''.

Works

Television

*'' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (2002) - orchestration of the song "Mrs." in " Selfless" *'' Miracle Planet'' (2005) - orchestration of an unknown episode

Films and TV

*''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

'' (2000) - orchestration (with Paul S. Henning) *''Bean Cake'' (2001) - composition *''The Best Picture Show'' (2001) - composition *''One'' (2001) - composition *''Me and My Old Man'' (2001) - conducting *''Ocha Cups for Christmas'' (2002) - composition *''The Kabuki Joint'' (2003) - composition *''The Document of ‘God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand’'' (2006) - composition *''Kami no hidarite akuma no migite'' (2006) - composition *''Chiyo'' (2006) - composition *''The Making of Dark Fantasy'' (2007) - composition *''2095'' (2007) - composition and orchestration (with Christopher Farrell) *''HOP'' (2011) - orchestration *'' Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack'' (2012) - composition and orchestration (with

Go Shiina , known professionally as Go Shiina, is a Japanese music composer primarily known for his work in video games. He joined Namco in 1997 and was best known during his time with the company for writing music for a number of games in the '' Tales'', ...

) *''Puppy!'' (2017) - music arranger *'' Brad's Status'' (2017) - additional music (with

Mark Mothersbaugh Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (; born May 18, 1950) is an American composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as co-founder, lead singer and keyboardist of the new wave band Devo, whose " Whip It" was a top 20 ...

) *''

The Lego Ninjago Movie ''The Lego Ninjago Movie'' is a 2017 computer-animated martial arts comedy film produced by Warner Animation Group, RatPac Entertainment, Lego System A/S, Lin Pictures, Lord Miller Productions, and Vertigo Entertainment, and distributed by Warn ...

'' (2017) - orchestral arrangements and additional music (with

) *'' Thor: Ragnarok'' (2017) - additional music (with

) *''Pandas'' (2018) - additional music (with John Enroth, Albert Fox, Ethan Obbema,

and Ray Plaza) *'' Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation'' (2018) - additional music (with Ray Plaza, Peter Seibert, and

) *''

Holmes & Watson ''Holmes & Watson'' is a 2018 American-Canadian mystery-comedy film written and directed by Etan Cohen. The film stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as the eponymous characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively; with Rebecca Hall, R ...

'' (2018) - additional music (with

, Ray Plaza, Tim Jones, Peter Seibert and Sunna Wehrmeijer) *'' The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part'' (2019) - additional music (with Tim Jones, Peter Seibert, Ray Plaza,

and Alan Tyler) *''

The Willoughbys ''The Willoughbys'' is a 2020 computer-animated comedy film directed by Kris Pearn and co-directed by Rob Lodermeier. Based on the book of the same name by Lois Lowry, the film's screenplay was written by Pearn and Mark Stanleigh, and stars the ...

'' (2020) - additional music and arrangements (with

, John Enroth, Albert Fox, Tim Jones and Pete Seibert) *'' The Croods: A New Age'' (2020) - additional music (with

, Peter Seibert, Ethan Obbema and Brian Byrne) *'' The Mitchells vs The Machines'' (2021) - score wrangler *'' Monster Pets: A Hotel Transylvania'' (2021) - additional music (with Mark Mothersbaugh) *''

Rugrats (2021 TV series) ''Rugrats'' is an American computer-animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain. It has been described as both a revival and reboot of the original TV series of the same name that ran from 1991 to 20 ...

'' (2021) - additional music (with Robert Mothersbaugh)

Video games

*'' Afrika'' (2008) - composition, orchestration, and conducting *''

'' (2009) - composition, orchestration, and conducting *'' Ace Combat: Joint Assault'' (2010) - orchestration and conducting *''

Kinect Disneyland Adventures ''Kinect: Disneyland Adventures'' is a 2011 open world video game developed by Frontier Developments and published by Microsoft Studios on Kinect for Xbox 360, with a remaster for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows developed by Asobo Studio rele ...

'' (2011) - composition and conducting (with

Mark Griskey Mark Griskey (born 1963) is an American composer for video games such as '' Marvel Heroes'', '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords'', and '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'' as well as several titles for ''Disney Publishing Wor ...

Laura Karpman Laura Anne Karpman (born March 1, 1959) is an American composer, whose work has included music for film, television, video games, theater, and the concert hall. She has won five Emmy Awards for her work. Karpman was trained at The Juilliard Scho ...

, Paul Lipson,

Peter McConnell Peter Nelson McConnell (born April 19, 1960), also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game composer and musician, best known for his work at LucasArts and for composing the soundtracks for every '' Sly Cooper'' game since the second insta ...

, and Lennie Moore) *'' Ace Combat 3D: Cross Rumble'' (2012) - composition and orchestration (with many others) *''The Grinns Tale'' (2012) - composition *'' Soul Sacrifice'' (2013) - composition, orchestration, and conducting (with

) *'' Knack'' (2013) - composition and orchestration (with Matthew Margeson) *'' Soul Sacrifice Delta'' (2014) - composition and orchestration (with

) *'' Halo 2: Anniversary'' (2014) - orchestration (with Lennie Moore,

Tom Salta Tom Salta, also known as Atlas Plug (stylized ATlA5 PlUG), is an American recording artist and soundtrack composer. He has composed soundtracks for many video game titles, including '' Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 & 2'', ''Cold ...

, Brian Trifon, and Brian Lee White) *''

Halo Wars 2 ''Halo Wars 2'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by 343 Industries and Creative Assembly. It was published by Microsoft Studios and released in February 2017 on Windows and Xbox One. The game is set in the science fiction universe ...

'' (2017) - conducting *''Volta-X'' (2020) - composer *'' Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart'' (2021) - composer (with Mark Mothersbaugh) *''

Monster Hunter Rise is a 2021 action role-playing game by Capcom. It is the sixth mainline installment in the ''Monster Hunter'' series and was released for the Nintendo Switch in March 2021 and Windows in January 2022. An expansion pack, ''Monster Hunter Rise: Sun ...

'' (2021) - conductor (Los Angeles Recording Session)

Other

*Music for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

''. *String arrangements on the

Thirty Seconds to Mars Thirty Seconds to Mars (commonly stylized as 30 Seconds to Mars) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of brothers Jared Leto (lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Shannon Leto (drums, ...

album ''

A Beautiful Lie ''A Beautiful Lie'' is the second studio album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released on August 30, 2005 through Virgin Records. It was produced by Josh Abraham. ''A Beautiful Lie'' differs notably from the band's self-titled d ...

''. *In 2007, he was commissioned by the

United States Air Force Band The United States Air Force Band is a U.S. military band consisting of 184 active-duty members of the United States Air Force. It is the Air Force's premier musical organization and is based at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C.. Within t ...

to premiere a new piece for the 400th Anniversary of Jamestown's settlement and the 60th anniversary of

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

. *Conducted

Video Games Live Video Games Live (VGL) is a concert series created by Tommy Tallarico and originally founded by Tallarico and Jack Wall. The concerts consist of segments of video game music performed by a live orchestra with video footage and synchronized light ...

with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in Newark, NJ on December 29–30, 2010, with the National Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorale in Bethesda, MD on February 26, 2011, and with the Mesa Symphony Orchestra and Vocal Exchange Choir in Mesa, AZ on April 7, 2011. *Composed the piece ''Animas Luminis'', written as a memorial and requiem to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami victims.

References

External links

* *
Afrika Scoring Session VideoResident Evil 5: Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hokoyama, Wataru 1974 births 21st-century conductors (music) 21st-century Japanese male musicians Cleveland Institute of Music alumni Interlochen Center for the Arts alumni Japanese conductors (music) Japanese film score composers Japanese male film score composers Living people USC Thornton School of Music alumni Video game composers