Shin-ichiro Ikebe was born in Mito, Japan, in 1943. Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1967, he finished the graduate course at the same university in 1971. He won the first prize for composition at the 35th Japan Music Competition in 1966 and came in first place for Ongaku-no-tomo Company’s Chamber Music Contest that same year.

Since then he has received numerous awards including the Salzburg TV Opera Festival Award (1971), the Italian Broadcasting Corporation (RAI) Prize (3 times), International Emmy Awards (1989), the prize for excellence in the Fine Arts Festival (4 times) and the Otaka Award (3 times). For film music, he has received the Mainichi Film Music Award 3 times and the music award for excellence in the Japanese Academy Award 9 times. He also received the Purple Ribbon Medal in 2004 from the government.

Major works include: Symphonies No. 1~11, the operas No.1~11 and many other orchestral pieces, chamber music, works for Japanese instruments, choral pieces, musicals and modern dance pieces.

He has composed many incidental music pieces for various movies and TV dramas. These include movies such as “The Shadow Warrior”, “The Ballad of Narayama”, “The Eel”. Furthermore, he has composed numerous works for television, radio and theatre.

In addition to these activities, he produces and manages many public concerts and has published essays.
Currently he is a professor emeritus at the Tokyo College of Music, director of music halls and festivals, etc.