Ryōhei Hirose was born in Hakodate, Hokkaido in 1930. He started composing when he entered Hokkaido University’s preparatory course. After graduating from the education department of the university, he went to Tokyo. In 1953, he entered Tokyo University of the Arts’ composition department, and studied with Tomojirō Ikenouchi, Yuzuru Shimaoka and Akio Yashiro. There he acquired the skill for strict composition of music and advanced music culture. He also learned to analyze music and twelve-tone music from Minao Shibata and Yoshirō Irino. In 1961, he completed his studies at the university.

In 1963, when Hirose dealt with Japanese instruments in the production of drama music, he composed a quintet, “Toruso”, consisting of two kotos, a sangen, a shakuhachi and a cello. It was commissioned by a young Japanese music group.

After that, he announced a lot of works for Japanese instruments and made a big contribution to contemporary Japanese music. He especially had a lot of interest in the shakuhachi, and kept writing shakuhachi works such as “Heki” for three shakuhachis and string instruments (1964) and “Halle” for three shakuhachis (1969). After that, Hirose was influenced by Indian philosophy, and announced various works expressing pan-Asia images such as the cello concerto “Triste” (1971), “Tenraichikyo” for shakuhachi and asian percussions (1976) and “Concerto for Shakuhachi and Orchestra” (1976, Otaka Prize). He also published “Kurima” (1976) and “Karavinka” (1978) both for the orchestra. On the other hand, he left a lot of famous songs for popular instruments, such as “Songs of the Ocean” (1975) for a mixed chorus, “Meditation” for an alto recorder (1975) and “Blue Train” for a flute ensemble (1979).

He served as a professor, dean, president of dean, emeritus professor of Kyoto City University of Arts, a lecturer at University Mozarteum Salzburg and Essen University of Music, and director of the Kyoto Concert Hall. He received a lot of awards including the Award of Art Works by Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Medal with Purple Ribbon and others. He died at the age of 78 in 2008.