conductor
Artistic and Musical Director of the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO)
Principal Guest Conductor Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra,
Guest conductor of the Seiji Ozawa International Academy
Kazuki Yamada is Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). Alongside his commitments in Birmingham, Yamada is Artistic and Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte- Carlo (OPMC). Yamada has forged a link between Monaco and Birmingham having conducted collaborative performances with the CBSO Chorus of Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ in both cities in 2019 and Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’ in 2023.
His time under the close supervision of Seiji Ozawa served to underline the importance of what Kazuki Yamada calls his “Japanese feeling” for classical music. Born in 1979 in Kanagawa, Japan, he continues to work and performs in Japan every season with NHK Symphony Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. Shortly after assuming his position in Birmingham, in summer 2023 Yamada gave a series of concerts on tour around Japan with the CBSO and in summer 2024 with OPMC.
Yamada’s passionate and collaborative approach to conducting means he commands a busy international diary of concerts, opera, and choral conducting. The current season begins with his return to the BBC Proms in summer 2024 with the CBSO, closely followed by his return to Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin as part of Musikfest Berlin. In May 2025, he takes the CBSO on tour to Europe and on tour to Japan just one month later. Yamada also conducts the Monte Carlo Opera in a double bill celebration of Ravel with ‘L’enfant et les sortilèges’ and ‘L’heure espagnole’. He makes debut appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony. He continues regular guesting commitments with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National de France, and Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg for a special performance of Fauré’s Requiem with Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus.
Yamada performs with soloists such as Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes, Seong-Jin Cho, Isabelle Faust, Martin Helmchen, Nobuko Imai, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Alexandre Kantorow, Evgeny Kissin, Maria João Pires, Julian Pregardien, Baiba Skride, Fazıl Say, Arabella Steinbacher, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, 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 strongly committed to the CBSO’s outreach programme. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international concert halls reaffirmed his belief that – in his words – “The audience is always involved in making the music. As a conductor, I need an audience there as much as the musicians“. Yamada studied music at 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.
