Kazuki Yamada

Conductor

“The BBC SO have found a star in the making: let’s hope we hear more of him.”    The Telegraph, March 2011

Kazuki Yamada has been announced as Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, starting in the 2012/2013 season. This followed his sensational debut with the orchestra only weeks before, in June 2010, which was one of his first appearances in Europe.  In September 2009, he was the winner of the 51st Besancon International Competition for young conductors, receiving the Audience Award as well as the Grand Prize. 

Last season, he made his Paris debut with Orchestre de Paris, his Berlin debut with Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin and his London debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, at London’s Barbican Hall. His regular collaboration with Orchestre de Paris took him back to Paris before the end of the season and also to the Bad Kissingen Festival.  Furthermore, he appeared at Folles Journées Nantes in a concert broadcast live on Arte and a summer festival tour of France with English Chamber Orchestra. 

In the 2011/2012 season, he appears for the first time with hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Dresdner Philharmonie, Orquestra Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Prague Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony and Malmo Symphony Orchestra.

In Japan, Yamada holds the position of Associate Conductor with NHK Symphony Orchestra.  He also appears regularly with Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra. In March 2010, he stepped in for an indisposed Seiji Ozawa with Ensemble Orchestral Kanazawa, and was subsequently given the title of ‘Music Partner’.  In August 2010, he appeared with Saito-Kinen Orchestra, also at the recommendation of Seiji Ozawa.  Passionate about choral repertoire, he is Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus’s Residential Conductor.  The group have released four CDs with Yamada (on Fontec Inc).

His repertoire includes all symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Borodin and soloists with whom he is working include Lisa Batiashvili, Boris Berezovsky, Leon Fleischer, Noboku Imai, Janine Jansen, Daniel Müller-Schott, Vadim Repin, Fazil Say, Baiba Skride and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Now resident in Berlin, Yamada was born in Kanagawa, Japan, in 1979. As a student, he formed Yokohama Sinfonietta, where he remains Music Director. He was awarded the Ataka-Prize in 2001 when he graduated from the conducting course at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music. He also studied under Gerhard Markson at the Mozarteum Salzburg in 2002.  In 2011 he received the Idemitsu Music Prize for young artists in Japan. 

SEASON 2011/2012