BIOGRAPHY

Artistic and Musical Director of the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO)
Guest conductor of the Seiji Ozawa International Academy

Directeur artistique et chef principal du Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, directeur musical de l’Orchestre symphonique de Birmingham (CBSO) et directeur artistique du département de la musique du Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Kazuki Yamada a également été chef principal invité de l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, directeur musical du Chœur philharmonique de Tokyo, de l’Orchestre symphonique Yomiuri Nippon et du Yokohama Sinfonietta et directeur artistique et musical de l’Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

Kazuki Yamada is Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), and Artistic Director of the Music Department at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. He has also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Music Director of the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and the Yokohama Sinfonietta, and Artistic and Music Director of the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra.

His time under the close supervision of Seiji Ozawa served to underline the importance of what Yamada calls his “Japanese feeling” for classical music. Born in 1979 in Kanagawa, he continues to work and perform in Japan every season with the country’s foremost orchestras, including Yomiuri Nippon and NHK Symphony Orchestras as well as The Japan Philharmonic. During his tenure as Music Director of the CBSO, Yamada has regularly toured Japan with the orchestra and in summer 2027 will also lead the CBSO on tour to South Korea.

Kazuki Yamada’s passionate and collaborative approach to conducting means he commands a busy international diary of concerts, opera, and choral conducting. He opens his tenure as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) in October with a programme bringing together Charles Ives, Edvard Grieg, Anna Clyne and Claude Debussy, offering a first glimpse of the artistic vision behind his inaugural season with the orchestra, where established masterworks are placed alongside contemporary voices to inspire curiosity, reflection and discovery.

Il collabore avec de nombreux solistes dont Truls Mørk, Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes, Seong-Jin Cho, Isabelle Faust, Martin Helmchen, Nobuko Imai, Lucas et Arthur Jussen, Alexandre Kantorow, Evgeny Kissin, Maria João Pires, Julian Prégardien, Baiba Skride, Fazıl Say, Arabella Steinbacher, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Vilde Frang, Janine Jansen, Yunchan Lim, Bruce Liu et Alice Sara Ott, Krystian Zimerman et Frank Peter Zimmermann. With the CBSO he returns to the BBC Proms before continuing his Mahler cycle, opening the season with the Resurrection Symphony and closing with the Third symphony. In the Autumn he embarks on another European tour with the orchestra performing Britten’s War Requiem and launches his Beethoven cycle to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.

Yamada performs with distinguished soloists such as Truls Mørk, Emanuel Ax, Seong-Jin Cho, Isabelle Faust, Vilde Frang, Martin Helmchen, Nobuko Imai, Janine Jansen, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Alexandre Kantorow, Evgeny Kissin, Yunchan Lim, Bruce Liu, Alice Sara Ott, Maria João Pires, Fazıl Say, Krystian Zimerman, and Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Strongly committed to his role as an educator, Yamada appears annually as a guest artist at the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland and is actively involved in the CBSO’s outreach programme. Yamada studied music at the Tokyo University of the Arts where he discovered a love for both Mozart and the Russian romantic repertory. He first achieved international attention upon receiving first prize in the 51st International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors in 2009. Having lived in Japan for most of his life, Kazuki Yamada now resides in Berlin.

PRESS QUOTES

“Undertaken by staunchly tonal strings, punctuated with dashes of percussion, it was a profoundly immersive journey under the baton of Kazuki Yamada.“
NZ Herald, William Dart

“Schumann’s Second Symphony is a relative rarity in concert programmes, but under Yamada’s direction this was the most exciting Schumann performance I have ever heard.“
Resmusica

“Yamada is reminiscent of Andris Nelsons: a smiling, engaging presence who seems to exude music, and who can shape massive sonorities with the wave of a finger.“
Resmusica