Conductor

Yoshinao KIHARA is a Japanese conductor and composer who began his conducting studies at theage of sixteen under Seiji Ozawa. He worked with the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy and at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto (now the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival).

He completed master’s degrees with highest distinction in orchestral conducting, choral conducting, and répétiteur studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, receiving the Würdigungspreis, and later completed the Advanced Professional Training for Conductors at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has received fellowships from the Rohm Music Foundation, the Honjo International Scholarship Foundation, and the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs.

KIHARA is the recipient of the 25th Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award. Opera productions under his direction received the 31st Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Music Award and the 35th Music Pen Club Japan Award (Contemporary Music Division). His engagements include the 50th Anniversary Opera Series of Kanagawa Prefectural Hall, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach, and Scenes Recital 2023 at the New National Theatre Tokyo Opera Studio. He has conducted orchestras including the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Magdeburgische Philharmonie, and the Gunma Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared at major festivals including the Gargantua Music Festival and the Suntory Hall Summer Festival.

Winner of 1st Prize at the 4th Tokyo Cantat Choral Conducting Competition for Young Conductors, earning particular acclaim from jury members Carl Høgset, Erwin Ortner, and Kaspars Putniņš. In 2016, upon recommendation of the Vienna Musikverein, he conducted the Wiener Singverein’s Japan tour concert at Sumida Triphony Hall, performing Mozart’s Requiem and motets by Bruckner. From 2019 to 2025 he served as Principal Conductor of the Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, leading subscription concerts and special productions while championing contemporary works by Messiaen, Schönberg, Takemitsu, and other leading composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He has also served as chorus master under Riccardo Muti, Charles Dutoit, and Jonathan Nott.

As a composer, his String Quartet Momentan was selected in the Haydn Bicentenary Composition Competition and premiered at Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt. His orchestration of Mozart’s Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” has been performed by major Japanese orchestras. He composed and conducted the premiere of the commissioned work EMOTIONS – KI・DO・AI・RAKU – for the Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo.

He currently serves on the faculties of Kunitachi College of Music, Toho Gakuen School of Music and the Tokyo Nikikai Opera Studio.

Official website: www.yoshinaokihara.com