Masaaki Suzuki (musician)

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Suzuki conducts Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Eberbach Monastery (2011).

Masaaki Suzuki ( Japanese 鈴木 雅明 Suzuki Masaaki ; born April 29, 1954 in Kobe ) is a Japanese conductor , organist and harpsichordist .

Live and act

Masaaki Suzuki started playing the organ at Sunday services at the age of 12. His family belongs to the minority of evangelical Christians in Japan. After graduating from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo in the subjects composition and organ, he continued his studies in harpsichord and organ at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Ton Koopman and Piet Kee continued.

After receiving soloist diplomas for both instruments in Amsterdam, he received second prize at the 1980 harpsichord competition (basso continuo) and third prize at the 1982 organ competition at the Festival van Vlaanderen in Bruges .

Since 1990 he has been the artistic director of the Bach Collegium Japan , which has made a name for itself primarily through its recordings of the cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach . This achievement was honored with an ECHO Klassik in 2014 . Masaaki Suzuki presented a Stravinsky CD in 2016 which, in addition to the Pulcinella suite and the ballet music Apollon musagète, also contained the Concerto in Re . A Finnish orchestra played, the Tapiola Sinfonietta .

He is Professor of Organ and Harpsichord at the National University of Art and Music in Tokyo and, since 2009, Professor of Choral Conducting at Yale University (USA). In 2001 he was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon . In 2011 he received the Bremen Music Festival Prize . In 2012 he was awarded the Bach Medal at the Leipzig Bach Festival for his services to the care of Bach's work. On January 28, 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology from the Theological University of Kampen (Netherlands) for his services to the interpretation of Bach's cantatas and the connections he made between Bach's music and the Christian faith. In 2015 Masaaki Suzuki received the Gutenberg Teaching Award at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz , and the following year he made a guest appearance as "Artist in residence" for Barock vokal at the Mainz University of Music .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Hanefeld: Why the Japanese consume Bach's music like rice. Conductor Masaaki Suzuki. In: deutschlandradiokultur.de. December 4, 2015, accessed June 12, 2016 .
  2. ^ ORF : Ö1 bis Zwei , with Renate Burtscher . Fictional Baroque with Suzuki's Stravinsky, October 21, 2016.
  3. ↑ The City of Leipzig Bach Medal 2012 goes to the Japanese conductor and organist Masaaki Suzuki. City of Leipzig, April 17, 2012, accessed on July 6, 2012 .
  4. ^ Masaaki Suzuki awarded honorary doctorate. Early Music Today, November 21, 2014, accessed June 12, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Aanvaardingsrede Masaaki Suzuki. Theological University of Kampen, January 28, 2015, accessed on June 12, 2016 (Dutch).
  6. ↑ Gutenberg Teaching Award 2015 for Masaaki Suzuki. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, September 29, 2015, accessed on December 8, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Suzuki, Masaaki
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 鈴木 雅明 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese conductor
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Kobe