Yuzo Toyama

{{short description|Japanese composer and conductor (1931–2023)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}

{{nihongo|Yūzō Toyama|外山 雄三|Toyama Yūzō|10 May 1931 – 11 July 2023}} was a Japanese composer and conductor. A native of Tokyo, he was a pupil of Kan'ichi Shimofusa; he studied conducting with Kurt Wöss and Wilhelm Loibner and, like them, later became a conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra. As a conductor he served with numerous orchestras throughout Japan; as a composer his prime influences are Béla Bartók and Dmitri Shostakovich. Mstislav Rostropovich performed the world premiere of the composer's six-movement 1967 First Cello Concerto, a piece described by Gramophone as "attractive", with the additional comment that it "sounds like Japanese folk music rendered orchestral by Kodaly".{{cite web |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/rostropovich-the-moscow-recordings |title=Rostropovich The Moscow Recordings |publisher=Gramophone |access-date=9 August 2020}} His best-known work is a Rhapsody for Orchestra based on Japanese folk songs. Toyama won the Suntory Music Award in 1982.

Toyama died on 11 July 2023, at the age of 92.{{cite news |title=指揮者・作曲家の外山雄三さん死去 92歳、日本クラシック界率いる |url=https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASR7F5558R7FUCVL01T.html |access-date=13 July 2023 |publisher=Asahi.com |date=13 July 2023}}