Conductor Yasuo Shinozaki
Shinozaki was born in Kyoto in 1968. At Toho Gakuen College he studied
conducting with Nanao Yamamoto and Taijiro Iimori.
In 1993 he won the highest prize in the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting
Competition. He went on to train with Ilya Musin and Myung-Whun Chung at
the Accademia Musicale Chigiana; Leopold Hager and Yuji Yuasa at the University
of Music and Performing Arts Vienna; and Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink
in the Tanglewood Music Festival Seminar.
In 1998, Shinozaki made his debut in Japan conducting a subscription concert
of the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra. He received critical praise for
the “strong presence and passion of his conducting” (Ongaku Gendai magazine).
In 2000, he won 2nd Prize in the Second International Sibelius Competition.
The final round of the competition was broadcast live on Finnish television.
Shinozaki received the strong endorsement of the Helsinki Philharmonic,
and later he went on to conduct the orchestra in a subscription concert.
Starting in 2001, Shinozaki served as assistant conductor of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic Orchestra. In this capacity he was involved in performances
of a diverse repertoire spanning classical works to world premieres of
contemporary compositions, in over 40 concerts. During this time, in 2002,
he made his subscription concert debut, replacing a guest conductor on
short notice. The success of this appearance earned a great deal of attention,
and Shinozaki was nominated for the Los Angeles Weekly’s music award for
“Outstanding Classical Artist.” In the period before the completion of
his term in 2004, his relationship with the orchestra became very close
and productive, and he received high praise from many quarters.
In 2004 Shinozaki relocated to London and focused his activity on concerts
in Europe, conducting major orchestras in numerous countries including
the BBC Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Finnish
Radio Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, and Latvian
National Symphony. His performance of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony with the
Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra received high praise from the audience in
Germany. Shinozaki has appeared with such renowned soloists as Andre Watts,
Emanuel Ax and Yuri Bashmet. In January 2007, he became chief conductor
and artistic director of the Kymi Sinfonietta in Finland, and earned attention
for ambitious projects including the launch of the series “Beethoven and
20th-Century Viennese Composers.” He also conducted highly successful concerts
in London and Saint Petersburg, and worked tirelessly towards the remarkable
development of the orchestra before retiring from his post in July 2014.
The length of his seven and a half year tenure with the orchestra was nearly
unprecedented in Finland.
In September 2015, after serving as MusicAdvisor, Yasuo Shinozaki became
Principal Cnductor of the Shizuoka Symphony orchestra till March 2018.
He has appeared with many other Japanese orchestras as well, including
the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic,
New Japan Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic, Kansai Philharmonic, Sendai
Philharmonic, Kanagawa Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic, Kyoto SymphonyOrchestra,
Japan Century Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Symphony Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony
Orchestra and Gunma Symphony Orchestra.
In February 2017, Shinozaki appeared with the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra
in Germany, and he is conducting Johannesburg Philharmonic, KwaZulu-Natal
Philharmonic Orchestra of Durban, and Cape Town Philharmonic, South Africa
regularly, receiving critical acclaim from the local press. Yasuo Shinozaki
captivates audiences with a solidly classical sensibility and intensely
focused, dynamic conducting.
