Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra

Performer Details

Performer Bio Synopsis

Founded in 1923, Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra, commonly referred to as ?Shion' is widely acknowledged as the oldest professional wind orchestra in Japan. In 2014 the orchestra has been privatized and has renamed as “Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra” from “Osaka Municipal Symphonic Band”. Today Shion continues to contribute to Japanese music culture performing a wide range of music from classical to popular music. As well as their CD, Shion has produced many recordings such as test pieces for All-Japan Band Competitions organized by All-Japan Band Association, a theme music for Japanese High School Baseball Invitational Tournament, Do Re Mi Fa Wonderland by NHK, and so on. Shion has been playing a big role in the field of music education giving concerts and lectures for kinder-gardens to high schools. Shion has received prestigious awards for its work including awards at the Osaka Cultural Festival Awards three times, Japan Broadcast Culture Awards, Naniwa ”Ichibiri” Activity Awards, Osaka Art Prize. Akira Miyagawa/Music Director, Kazuyoshi Akiyama/Artistic Advisor have been appointed.

Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra

Conductor's Bio

Born in 1941, Kazuyoshi Akiyama studied conducting under Hideo Saito at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. In February 1964, Kazuyoshi Akiyama made his debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and soon after this successful collaboration he was named the orchestra’s Music Director and Permanent Conductor, the posts which he held for the following forty years. During this period, he held conducting posts internationally including Assistant Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the American Symphony, the Syracuse Symphony, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestras. (Currently he is Conductor Laureate of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.) Also, he was invited to conduct world’s leading orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. In 1991, Kazuyoshi Akiyama led the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra on a successful world tour to celebrate the orchestra’s 45th anniversary. Three years later, he conducted a concert style performance of Schoenberg’s opera Moses and Aaron for the TSO’s 400th subscription concert. The performance received great critical acclaim and became the hottest topic of the year in the Japanese musical world. The CD with the recording from this performance was hailed enthusiastically by prestigious musical magazines both at home and abroad. Kazuyoshi Akiyama led the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra again to international venues on a European tour to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1996 and a tour to Turkey and Italy in celebration of its 55th anniversary in 2001, earning high recognition everywhere they performed. Having been an ardent advocate of new repertoires, Kazuyoshi Akiyama presented Schoenberg’s Jacob’s Ladder and Janacek’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen (in stage style performance) in 1997 and conducted Japanese premieres of operatic works such as Lachenmann’s Das Madchen mit den Schwefelholzern (The Little Match Girl) (in concert style), Janacek’s Kata Kabanova (performed by the original language) in 2000, and John Adams’ El Niño in 2003.