Winner of the Besançon Competition in 2009, Japanese conductor Kazuki Yamada has seen his career develop in Europe. Born in Kanagawa on January 26, 1979, he trained as a pianist before turning to conducting at Tokyo University of the Arts with Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and Yoko Matsuo. Parallel to his studies, validated by a diploma in 2001, he founded the Yokohama Sinfonietta, then left to study with Gerhard Markson at the Salzburg Mozarteum Summer Academy. His return to Japan in 2005 saw him take charge of the Tokyo Philharmonic Choir and collaborate with the NHK Symphony Orchestra Chorus conducted by Charles Dutoit and leading Japanese orchestras. In 2009, fifty years after Seiji Ozawa and twenty after Yutaka Sado, Kazuki Yamada won the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors, paving the way for an international career. That same year, he replaced Michel Plasson at the helm of the Orchestre de Paris, then Seiji Ozawa at the Académie internationale de musique de Suisse in 2010. Based in Berlin, he is principal guest conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse romande (2013-2017) and the Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (2014-2015), of which he becomes artistic and musical director in 2016 until 2024. At the same time, Kazuki Yamada is appointed Principal Conductor of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2023. His discography on the Exton, Pentatone, Naxos and Erato labels includes collaborations with Adam Laloum, Denis Kozhukhin, Evelyn Chen and Marie-Nicole Lemieux. In 2023, his Diapason d'or award-winning recording of Saint-Saëns's opera Déjanire reached No. 10 in the classical music charts in France and No. 40 in the UK. After the First Symphonies by Bizet, Gounod and Saint-Saëns in 2025, the Japanese conductor exhumes Saint-Saëns' opera L'Ancêtre with singers Jennifer Holloway, Gaëlle Arquez and Hélène Carpentier in the lead roles.
