Hideo Kikuchi studied the clarinet with Kazuko Ninomiya, and graduated from Toho Gakuen School of Music. He was the 2nd Prize winner in 1993 Tokyo Contemporary Music Competition “Kyogaku”, and was also awarded Stipendienpreis at Internationale Ferienkurse fur neue Musik in Darmstadt in 1996. Besides the contemporary music, he also collaborated with jazz musicians.