Toshifumi Hinata, born in Tokyo, Feb23 1955
After graduating from high school in 1973, he went to England and spent some time working at a motorcycle company in Farnham in Surrey. In 1975, he moved to America and enrolled in Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin where he shifted his focus more on to music, and played in a local blues band as a keyboard player. In August of 1976, he transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston. In August 1978, he was the recipient of an international student scholarship from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and transferred to the Department of Music at UMD. Over the next four years, he studied classical piano, theory, composition, orchestration, and also performed in recitals and orchestra. In 1982, following graduation, he started working as a musician in Minnesota.
He has continued to release solo albums and has been writing music for TV dramas and documentaries. He has also been writing scores for orchestra and chamber orchestra.
