Sado, Yutaka (13th May 1961-Present)

Conductor from Kyoto, Japan, who attended Kyoto City University of Arts and Kyoto Horikawa Senior High School, and landed a job as an assistant at Kansai Nikikai whilst completing his studies. His stint with the opera company allowed him the chance to learn about opera and work with the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and New Japan Philharmonic.

He participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival in the United States in 1987 and furthered his studies with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. It must have paid off. He went on to win the Davidoff Special Prize in a competition hosted by Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

He went on a tour of Germany and the former Soviet Union with Bernstein and assisted Ozawa in his conductorship of the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he made his professional debut.

In 1989, he made his international debut when he won the blue ribbon at the International Besancon Competition for Young Conductors, held in Besancon, France. Back in his homeland, he became a resident conductor at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, along with luminaries such as Christoph Eschenbach and Michael Tilson Thomas.

He visited France in 1993, where he worked briefly with the Orchestra of Bordeaux-Aquitaine, attracting the notice of Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, who asked him to be their guest conductor. After receiving rave reviews for one of their concerts, they appointed him Principal Conductor.

In 1995, he won the Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Music Competition and was named “Musical Revelation of the Year” by the Syndicate of Professional Drama and Music Critics in Paris, France.

It did not take long for Yutaka to develop an international reputation. On 31^st October 2001, he conducted the Rai National Symphony Orchestra and soloist Leonidas Kavakos in a performance of Alban Berg’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra” in Torino, Italy.

He led the Inagakuen Wind Orchestra and Siena Wind Orchestra in a concert that included Alfred Reed’s “Armenian Dances” and John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” and co-founded the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in 2005.

In 2006, he and Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux appeared on the album, Bedtime Beats: The Secret to Sleep. Less sleep-inducing was his recording of Dvorak: From the New World with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2008.

On 30^th November 2009, he was back in Torino for an eclectic concert that comprised Benjamin Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes, Op. 33a”, Gabriel Faure’s Pelleas et Melisande, Op, 80, and Danny Elfman’s “The Simpsons Theme”. It must have been a portent of things to come, because he was back at Teatro Regio di Torino for a mounting of Peter Grimes by Britten in 2010. He also held the position of conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2013 it was announced that he would become the Principal Conductor of the Tonkunstler Orchestra from the 2015-16 season with an initial contract of 3 years.

Yutaka is also a TV star: In Japan, he hosts Untitled Concert, the longest-running classical music program on television, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux recordings
Bacchanale (Jacques Ibert)
Conductor – Yutaka Sado
(CD: Jacques Ibert: Escales; Divertissement; Symphonie marine; Bacchanale; Ouverture de fete)

Sources:

Sado, Yutaka (13th May 1961-Present)

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