30 Facts About Yoko Shimomura

Yoko Shimomura is a Japanese composer and pianist primarily known for her work in video games such as the Kingdom Hearts series.

Yoko Shimomura graduated from the Osaka College of Music in 1988 and began working in the video game industry by joining Capcom the same year.

Yoko Shimomura left Capcom and joined Square in 1993, with her first project there being Live A Live.

Yoko Shimomura's works have been performed in multiple video game music concerts, with her music published as arranged albums and piano scores.

Yoko Shimomura is a member of the music label Brave Wave Productions.

Yoko Shimomura was born on October 19,1967, in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.

Yoko Shimomura developed an interest for music at a young age, and started taking piano lessons "at the age of four or five".

Yoko Shimomura began composing her own music by playing the piano randomly and pretending to compose, eventually coming up with her own pieces, the first of which she says she still remembers how to play.

Yoko Shimomura attended Osaka College of Music, and graduated as a piano major in 1988.

Yoko Shimomura was a member of the company's in-house band Alph Lyla, which played various Capcom game music, including pieces written by Shimomura.

Yoko Shimomura performed live with the group on a few occasions, including playing piano during Alph Lyla's appearance at the 1992 Game Music Festival.

In 1993, Yoko Shimomura left Capcom to join another game company, Square.

Yoko Shimomura stated that the move was done because she was interested in writing "classical-style" music for fantasy role-playing games.

Parasite Eve on the PlayStation had the first soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura that included a vocal song, as it was the first game she had written for running on a console system that had the sound capability for one.

Kingdom Hearts was wildly successful, shipping more than four million copies worldwide; Yoko Shimomura's music was frequently cited as one of the highlights of the game, and the title track has been ranked as the fourth-best role-playing game title track of all time.

Yoko Shimomura has worked on many other projects, such as Heroes of Mana and various arranged albums.

In February 2014, Yoko Shimomura played piano at a retrospective 25th anniversary concert at Tokyo FM Hall.

Yoko Shimomura performed songs from games such as Kingdom Hearts, Live a Live, and Street Fighter II.

Yoko Shimomura is a member of the music label Brave Wave Productions.

Yoko Shimomura has been cited as one of the most well-known video game music composers.

Shimomura's best works compilation album, titled Drammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura, was released in March 2008.

The album contains compositions from Kingdom Hearts and many other games she worked on in full orchestration, with Yoko Shimomura stating that she chose music that was popular among fans and well-suited for orchestration, but had never been performed by an orchestra before.

In March 2007, Yoko Shimomura released her first non-video game album, Murmur, an album of vocal songs sung by Chata.

Yoko Shimomura's first dedicated concert performance outside Japan was held at the Salle Cortot in Paris in November 2015.

In September 2016, some of her music for Final Fantasy XV was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London, as well as in Boston, with Yoko Shimomura herself performing on piano.

Yoko Shimomura composed for the concert work Merregnon: Land of Silence.

Yoko Shimomura's work was performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and filmed at the Stockholm Concert Hall in 2021, with more performances in other locations starting in 2022.

Yoko Shimomura was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards and the BAFTA Fellowship award in 2025.

Yoko Shimomura has stated that she has enjoyed "lounge-style jazz" for a long time.

Yoko Shimomura stated her favorite composition was "Dearly Beloved" from Kingdom Hearts.