Short answers, pulled from the story.
Masashi Hamauzu is a Japanese composer, pianist, and lyricist born in Munich, Germany in 1971. He is best known for scoring Final Fantasy XIII as sole composer and for his work on the SaGa series, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, among many other titles.
Hamauzu joined Square as a trainee in 1996, hired by Nobuo Uematsu. He left Square Enix on the 19th of January, 2010, to found his own studio, MONOMUSIK.
Hamauzu founded MONOMUSIK in 2010, which he described as a personal studio that did not include any other composers. Despite leaving Square Enix, he continued to be hired by the company for multiple Final Fantasy titles after its founding.
Hamauzu cites his father Akimori Hamauzu, animation composer Hiroshi Miyagawa, and Ryuichi Sakamoto of Yellow Magic Orchestra as his major musical influences. At university he developed a particular appreciation for the classical compositions of Ravel and Debussy.
On Final Fantasy VII, Hamauzu served as synthesizer programmer for an arrangement of Joseph Haydn's "The Creation" and contributed bass vocals in the eight-person chorus performing "One-Winged Angel". He was not a lead composer on that title.
Hamauzu released Vielen Dank in 2007, recorded in Munich, Germany. The album contains eleven original piano pieces composed for personal pleasure and 14 arrangements of his game compositions; two tracks were performed at the 2007 Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig.