Biography
Conductor
Masaaki Suzuki
Since founding Bach Collegium Japan in 1990, Masaaki Suzuki has established himself as a leading authority on the works of Bach. He has remained the ensemble’s music director ever since, touring regularly in major venues and festivals throughout Europe and the United States. His extensive discography on the BIS label, featuring all Bach’s major choral works as well as complete works for harpsichord, has been widely praised.
In addition to working with renowned period ensembles, such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque, Mr. Suzuki conducts repertoire as diverse as Brahms, Britten, Fauré, Mahler, Mendelssohn, and Stravinsky, with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gothenburg Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, and NHK Symphony. He made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in February 2016.
Mr. Suzuki combines his conducting career with work as an organist and harpsichordist. Born in Kobe, he graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music with a degree in composition and organ performance and then studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam under Ton Koopman and Piet Kee. Founder and professor emeritus of the early music department at the Tokyo University of the Arts, Mr. Suzuki was on the choral conducting faculty at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music from 2009 until 2013 and remains affiliated as the principal guest conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum.
(11/2022)
In addition to working with renowned period ensembles, such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque, Mr. Suzuki conducts repertoire as diverse as Brahms, Britten, Fauré, Mahler, Mendelssohn, and Stravinsky, with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gothenburg Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, and NHK Symphony. He made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in February 2016.
Mr. Suzuki combines his conducting career with work as an organist and harpsichordist. Born in Kobe, he graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music with a degree in composition and organ performance and then studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam under Ton Koopman and Piet Kee. Founder and professor emeritus of the early music department at the Tokyo University of the Arts, Mr. Suzuki was on the choral conducting faculty at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music from 2009 until 2013 and remains affiliated as the principal guest conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum.
(11/2022)