Kazuki Yamada

Biography

Kazuki Yamada is Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In Japan he holds further titles of Permanent Conductor of Japan Philharmonic, Principal Guest Conductor of Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, , Music Director and Chairman of The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo as well as Music Director of Yokohama Sinfonietta, an ensemble he founded whilst still a student.

Yamada appears as a guest with such orchestras as Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Orchestre de Paris, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. Further orchestras he works with include St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic and Tonkünstler-Orchester at the Vienna Musikverein. Among the soloists with whom he enjoys working are Emmanuel Ax, Boris Berezovsky, Håkan Hardenberger, Martin Helmchen, Nobuko Imai, Daishin Kashimoto, Alexander Kniazev, Steven Osborne, Francesco Piemontesi, Vadim Repin, Baiba Skride, Arabella Steinbacher, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Frank Peter Zimmermann.

In the current season, alongside his regular positions in Monte-Carlo, Birmingham and Japan, Kazuki Yamada returns as a guest to NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfionica Nazionale della RAI Torino, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, who’s Music Director he was from 2012-2017. He returns to the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with pianist Simon Trpčeski and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. In the 2020/21 season, Kazuki Yamada will make his debut with the Orchestre Nationale de Belgique, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Following a highly praised concert of Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus last year, they will now perform Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”. Kazuki Yamada will then take the chorus on tour with him to Monte-Carlo where he performs the same work with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

He is active in the field of opera and last season has conducted “La Damnation de Faust” in Monte-Carlo. He is strongly supported by Seiji Ozawa and, in August 2012, he conducted a semi-staged production of Honegger’s “Jeanne d’Arc”, with Saito-Kinen Orchestra; a project that was also a huge success in spring 2015 in Côme de Bellescize’s staged version at the Philharmonie de Paris, with the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Yamada. Committed to music education, Yamada appears as guest artist every summer with the students at the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland.

Yamada was Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and together they have released a hugely popular series of CDs inspired by dance, on the Pentatone label. Yamada is also Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus’ Music Director who have released ten CDs on Fontec.

Now resident in Berlin, Yamada was born in Kanagawa, Japan, in 1979. In 2009 he was the winner of the 51st Besançon International Competition for young conductors.

Photo Credit: Zuzanna Specjal