Masaaki SUZUKI
OrganistEHarpsichordistEConductor
photo @Marco Borggreve
Since founding Bach Collegium Japan in 1990,
Masaaki Suzuki has established himself as a leading authority on the works of
Bach. He has remained their Music Director ever since, taking them regularly to
major venues and festivals in Europe and the USA and building up an outstanding
reputation for the expressive refinement and truth of his performances.
He is now regularly invited to work together with
renowned European period ensembles, such as Collegium Vocale Gent and the
Freiburger Barockorchester together with whom he visited several European
capitals last season, and modern instrument orchestras in repertoire as diverse
as Britten, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Stravinsky. Forthcoming
engagements include the Boston Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin,
the Melbourne Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Zurich Tonhalle, and
return visits to the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra and
Choir.
Suzukifs impressive discography on the BIS label, featuring Bachfs complete
works for harpsichord and his interpretations of Bachfs major choral works and
sacred cantatas with Bach Collegium Japan (of which he has already completed
over forty volumes of a project to record the complete series) have brought him
many critical plaudits ? the Times has written: git would take an iron bar
not to be moved by his crispness, sobriety and spiritual vigourh.
Highlights of his current season with Bach Collegium Japan include 20th
anniversary concerts in Tokyo and a tour of the USA, as well as a visit to the
Hong Kong Arts Festival.
Masaaki Suzuki combines his conducting career with his work as organist and
harpsichordist; this year he gives solo performances at Carnegie Hall New York
and the Hong Kong Festival. Born in
Kobe, he graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music with a
degree in composition and organ performance and went on to study harpsichord
and organ at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam under Ton Koopman and Piet
Kee. Founder and head of the early music department at the Tokyo
University of the Arts, he is currently Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting
at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the
conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum.
In April 2001, Suzuki was decorated with eDas Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublikf from Germany.
This
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ias of July 2010j
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