Having graduated from both Bachelor and Master degrees from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music under the supervision of Teruyuki Noda and Akira Miyoshi, Hideki Kozakura studied for a year with Tristan Murail in New York under the Japanese Government Overseas Programme. He received his second Masters degree in composition from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm under the guidance of Pär Lindgren, Bent Sørensen and Örjan Sandred. Ever since he won equal first Prize in the 1997 Takemitsu Composition Competition, his pieces have been performed by leading musicians and orchestras in many parts of Japan, Europe and North and South America. Selected prizes for his winning pieces include the Japan Symphonic Prize, Nagoya Cultural Promotion Prize, scholarships and a research grant from the Nomura-Foundation, as well as the Agency for Cultural Affairs Performing Arts Prize, the Berlin Culture and Science Prize, and several awards at piano competitions in Japan.

His music is influenced by the traditional Japanese performing arts such as Kabuki Theatre or Kyogen, techno and German electropop. He is very active in projects involving cultural exchange with invited musicians from abroad.

Triangle Quartet for string quartet (1999-2000/2005)
Triangle Quartet was written in the period from 1999 to 2000 in New York and Stockholm. The first performance was given by Hugo String Quartet on 6th September 2002 at Ung Nordik Musik Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland. After the premiere, I have revised all the three movements thoroughly as requested by Kaunas String Quartet. The premiere of the second version was in October 2005, Kaunas, Lithuania.

I describe this quartet as one of my last study works. It is written within a framework of traditional string quartet style.

The first two movements are of equal lengths (5+5 minutes) while the third movement has a length of 10 minutes that is formed by bringing together both the characters of the 1st and 2nd like an isosceles triangle!