Matsuo Hayato

Hayato Matsuo (松尾早人, Matsuo Hayato, born August 13, 1965 in Kashiwa, Japan) is a Japanese video game and anime composer, arranger and orchestrator. He has worked on titles such as Front Mission 3, Final Fantasy XII, the Shenmue series, and Magic Knight Rayearth. Inspired by his mother, a piano teacher, he graduated from the music composition department of Tokyo University of the Arts. While in college, he composed for the band G-Clef, and occasionally stood in for members. Upon graduating, he went to work under Koichi Sugiyama, the composer for the popular Dragon Quest video game series, arranging his pieces for Dragon Quest anime shows and albums.
In 1991, Matsuo began to work as a video game music composer himself, writing the score to Master of Monsters. Over the next few years, he worked as an independent composer on several games and anime series, including Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. In 1995, he joined the independent music composition group Imagine. He has continued since then to compose and orchestrate works for over 20 games and anime shows, as well as the television show Kamen Rider 555 and a few pieces as part of original albums.