Hiroyuki Iwaki

Hiroyuki Iwaki AO (岩城 宏之, Iwaki Hiroyuki) (6 September 1932 – 13 June 2006) was a Japanese conductor and percussionist.

Biography

Iwaki was born in Tokyo in 1932. Shortly after he entered an elementary school, he moved to Kyoto due to his father's transferral. He came to play the xylophone at nine years old. He moved back to Tokyo when he advanced to the fifth grade.

In May 1945, suffering from an air raid, he evacuated to Kanazawa, where his relatives lived. After the end of World War II, he moved to mountainous area of Gifu for his father's work. In 1947, he was admitted to Gakushuin Boy's Junior High School, graduating in 1951. He had applied for admission to the Department of German Literature of University of Tokyo, but he gave up on account of a high fever he ran on the eve of the examination. Eventually he went to the Percussion Department, Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts. However, he dropped out later. In that era, discrimination existed depending on one's specialty within the faculty, and above all, the Percussion Department was ranked among the lowest group in the faculty.