Kazuki YAMADA
conductor
Kazuki Yamada is Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). Yamada is also Artistic and Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (OPMC) and from 2026/2027, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO).
Time spent with Seiji Ozawa underlines the importance of what Yamada calls his “Japanese feeling” for music. Born in Kanagawa, Japan, he continues to work and perform in Japan every season with NHK Symphony Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.
The current season begins at the BBC Proms with CBSO, closely followed by his return to Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has recently returned from the CBSO tour to Japan and in March 2026 they embark on another European tour. Following his recent debut with the Berlin Philharmoniker he makes debut appearances with the Bamberger Symphoniker, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Wiener Symphoniker. He continues regular guesting commitments with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra to name only a few.
Yamada performs with soloists such as Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes, Seong-Jin Cho, Isabelle Faust, Martin Helmchen, Nobuko Imai, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Alexander Kantorow, Evgeny Kissin, Fazıl Say, 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 outreach programme at CBSO. Yamada studied music at the Tokyo University of the Arts and first achieved international attention upon receiving first prize in the 51st Besançon International Competition for young conductors in 2009.