Kazuyoshi Akiyama

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Kazuyoshi Akiyama

Kazuyoshi Akiyama (Japanese: 秋山 和 慶 Akiyama Kazuyoshi) (born January 2, 1941 in Tokyo ) is a Japanese conductor.

biography

At the age of three, Akiyama had his first experience of playing the piano under the guidance of his mother, a music teacher. The corollary was his enrollment in the piano class at Toho Gakuen School of Music . Fascinated by the activities of his fellow student Seiji Ozawa , he decided to switch to conducting with Hideo Saito during his studies . He gained his first experience as a conductor while still studying with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as assistant to Seiji Ozawa,

After graduating, he first conducted the school orchestra of the Toho Gakuen School of Music and also toured Europe and the USA with it. But just a year later, in February 1964, he was engaged as conductor by The Tokyo Symphony and, thanks to his success and the reputation he had acquired in this position in a short time, took over the position of music director and chief conductor two months later .

Akiyama's successes with his orchestra did not go unnoticed at the houses on the other continents and so it came about that he is welcomed as a sought-after guest conductor all over the world. In North America he received engagements with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra , the American Symphony Orchestra , the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra , Vancouver Symphony Orchestra , the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra , the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra , the Philadelphia Orchestra , the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra . but also in Europe he conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester .

In addition to his work as music director of the Tokyo Symphony, he was music director of the American Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 1978 , music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 1972 to 1985, of which he is now honorary conductor, and music director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 1993 . In addition, from 1998 he was musical advisor to the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra in his own country .

His world tour with his regular orchestra, The Tokyo Symphony, on the occasion of its 45th anniversary, turned out to be extremely successful.

With the Tokyo Symphony he conducted the Japanese premieres of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron , John Adams ' multimedia opera El Niño and Lachenman's Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern .

In 2001 Akiyami received the Medal of Honor with a purple ribbon .

A selection of Akiyami's stations:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Meet the Conductors. Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, accessed April 11, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Akiyama, Kazuyoshi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese conductor
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo