Everyone's musical taste is shaped by their past—family, friends, and experiences. Here's mine: a unique journey that's still evolving, but these are tracks I still recommend. Check them out!

ARTISTS WHO HAVE INSPIRED ME

(Alphabetize)

COMPOSER

Bruce Broughton

Kurt Carr

Claude Debussy

Nikolai Kapustin

Maurice Ravel

Steve Reich

JAZZ

Bill Evans

Jan Johansson

Pat Metheny

Thelonious Monk

Teddy Wilson

VISUAL ARTIST

Olle Eksell

Ron Gorchov

Anselm Kiefer

Pablo Picasso

Jason Rosenberg

Saul Steinberg

Tetsuro Hoshii is a composer and jazz pianist based in New York City. His compositions have been performed at Tanglewood, Boston, and at prestigious venues across New York.

In 2023, Tetsuro collaborated with John Sheppard to arrange "America the Beautiful" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which were performed at the US Open Final Ceremony by Will Liverman, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Additionally, he composed "Mushroom's Holiday" for the New York Mycological Society's Mushroom Film Festival, blending the pulse of Reishi mushrooms with piano and electric soundscapes.

In 2024, Tetsuro was an artist-in-residence in Norway, where he innovated a groundbreaking music reading system called "Circle Score." He has begun developing and performing this system, with plans to expand it further in 2025.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Boston Cello Quartet recorded Tetsuro’s composition “Waltz of the Black Ants” for their album Pictures, which climbed to the Top 50 Classical Music Albums on iTunes upon its 2013 release.

Self-taught in piano and improvisation from the age of four, Tetsuro eventually graduated from Senzoku College of Music in Japan and earned a degree in jazz composition from Berklee College of Music, where he won the prestigious Wayne Shorter Award. His Tetsuro Hoshii Orchestra debuted at the Berklee Performance Center in 2011.

Hoshii’s music reflects a rich blend of jazz, classical, film soundtracks, musicals, and American roots music. His compositions have been performed by esteemed groups such as the New York Symphonic Brass and Decoda, featured in a sold-out Carnegie Hall chamber music series. They also appear on Tiziano Bianchi’s 2017 solo album Now and Then and as part of the Halcyon Chamber Series since 2015. Tetsuro authored The Adventures of Pinpi and Danda, a piano instruction book for students of all ages.

In 2015, he founded The Doggy Cats, a good-time brass band that regularly performs at Sunny’s Bar, one of New York’s most historic venues. The band’s debut album, Daikon Pizza (2019), received critical acclaim and international radio play, including on NPR’s Fresh Air. Since 2018, The Doggy Cats have been a staple at the Keyport Music Festival.

日本語の自己紹介はこちら

My Favorite Movies

Here’s a list of my favorite movies—perfect if you’re looking for something to watch tonight!

MY MOTTO 

I always try to achieve the things I feel I should achieve. I do what I think is right, even if the people around me don’t agree. I just have to keep believing to achieve my mission, even if I feel alone. 

I believe anything of value that I have comes from my job, education, family and friends. The value came mainly from overcoming my mistakes. I can keep myself okay, because I know sometimes I feel embarrassed by mistakes, jealous of others, and despair from my troubles....  

We are not perfect. We sometimes feel pleased by someone else’s unhappiness, taking advantage of someone else’s bad situation. In terms of understanding human beings, I try to thinking of someone who I really, really respect and avoid self-pity. 

HOW I KEEP GOING 

Always, I have to get through some obstacle. In fact, I can't move on without overcoming obstacles. But more importantly, at least I try to keep minimum motivation. If you lose motivation, you have no power to move on. And it's not easy to maintain the energy for that. My point is not to give myself too much pressure. It's the same for education. If you like something and you're good at, then having to keep the same A average every time makes you annoyed and lose your motivation. If you can give up because of that, that's probably not what you really like to do. Just taking a break and not thinking too much is the key to continuing my favorite things when I start to feel pressure. And I always try to keep an open mind. 

MY DREAM 

What I want to do/express/perform in my work is touch someone's feelings, and spread that to more people, and finally contribute to society. I can’t say that I'm creating for everyone. But I believe I’m doing the right thing. To achieve my goal, I always try to catch up with the way we in society are living nowadays in the world, to know more about people, us and me.

ABOUT MY NAME TETSURO HOSHII

The pronunciation is “TET-soo-roh HOH-shee”

Pronouncing my name may be giving you a hard time.

HERE IS MY COLLECTION OF MISSPELLINGS AT COFFEESHOPS!

Tetsuro(哲郎) means: Tetsu哲=Philosophy, Ro郎＝Man

Hoshii(星井) means: Hoshi (星)=Star, I = A Well

So, it sounds like: A philosopher stands next to a well on the star. Sounds something like The Little Prince, I think. However in reality, though, my parents named me for a popular Japanese manga called Galaxy Express 999 by Leiji Matsumoto. The main character's name is Tetsuro Hoshino (星野鉄郎).

In conclusion, please try to say my name. If you think it’s too difficult, just say, "Tootsie Roll”. Because “Tetsuro" sounds like "Tootsie Roll".