Kinuyo Yamashita
Life. Yamashita was born in Amagasaki, Hyōgo, Japan. She began playing the piano at the age of four and took piano lessons as a child. After studying electronic engineering at the two-year college Osaka Electro-Communication University, she graduated in 1986 and went to work for Konami. After leaving Konami, Yamashita established a career as an independent composer. She moved to the United States in 2010, and currently resides in Montague, New Jersey. Career. In 1986, Yamashita composed her first soundtrack to the video game "Castlevania" under strict hardware constraints. After her success in composing the "Castlevania  soundtrack, Yamashita composed for other games with Konami, including Esper Dream", "Arumana no Kiseki", "", "Maze of Galious", "", and "Parodius". She was part of the original Konami Kukeiha Club in-house band. In 1989, she left Konami to become a freelance composer. As an independent composer, Yamashita continued to score soundtracks for video games, including "Mega Man X3", but she also worked on various Natsume games, including "Power Blade", the "Medabot" series, "Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling" series, "Bass Masters Classic" (Game Boy Color), "" (GBC), "WWF WrestleMania 2000" (GBC), among others. Yamashita continued to compose independently in the new millennium, working on  titles such as "" (Game Boy Advance), "Croc 2" (GBC), "Monsters, Inc." (GBA), "WWF Road to WrestleMania" (GBA), "" (GBA), "Keitai Denjū Telefang" (GBC), and other games in the "Medabot" series. From 1991 to 1995, Yamashita formed a duo ensemble called "Honey Honey" which performed live covers of American Pop and Jazz music. She played the piano, alto saxophone and sang background vocals. Yamashita also composed songs for Japanese artists under the independent label Rocketeers and R&B songs independently for American artists. In 2009, Yamashita completed the arrangement for "Stage 4" on the "Dodonpachi Dai-Ō-Jō" remix CD released in Japan . She also composed a song for the Wii game "Walk It Out". In September 2009, Yamashita was invited as a special guest to "Video Games Live" at their concert event in Tokyo, where she appeared on stage after a performance of "Castlevania" produced by Tommy Tallarico. In 2010 and 2011, she continued to make appearances with "Video Games Live" performing "Castlevania Rock" with orchestras at venues including NJPAC in New Jersey, the Tilles Center in New York City and the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Notable works. "All works listed below were solely composed by Yamashita unless otherwise noted." Kinuyo