Kazuki Yamada

Kazuki Yamada is the music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). Alongside his commitments in Birmingham, Yamada is the artistic and music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (OPMC). Yamada has forged a link between Monaco and Birmingham, having conducted collaborative performances with the CBSO Chorus of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in both cities in 2019 and Orff’s Carmina Burana in 2023.

His time under the close supervision of Seiji Ozawa emphasized the importance of what Yamada calls his "Japanese feeling" for classical music. Born in 1979 in Kanagawa, Japan, he continues to work and perform in Japan every season with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. Shortly after assuming his position in Birmingham, Yamada gave a series of concerts on tour around Japan with the CBSO in the summer of 2023 and with the OPMC in the summer of 2024.

Yamada’s passionate and collaborative approach to conducting ensures a busy international schedule of concerts, opera, and choral performances. The 2024-25 season began with his return to the BBC Proms in the summer of 2024 with the CBSO, closely followed by his return to the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin as part of Musikfest Berlin. In May 2025, he took the CBSO on tour to Europe, followed by a tour to Japan one month later. Yamada also conducted the Monte Carlo Opera in a double-bill celebration of Ravel with L’enfant et les sortilèges and L’heure espagnole. He made debut appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony. He continued regular guest engagements with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National de France, and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, including a special performance of Fauré’s Requiem with the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus.

Yamada performs with renowned soloists such as Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes, Seong-Jin Cho, Isabelle Faust, Martin Helmchen, Nobuko Imai, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Alexandre Kantorow, Evgeny Kissin, Maria João Pires, Julian Pregardien, Baiba Skride, Fazıl Say, Arabella Steinbacher, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Krystian Zimerman, and Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Strongly committed to his role as an educator, Yamada appears annually as a guest artist at the Seiji Ozawa International Academy, Switzerland and is deeply engaged in the CBSO’s outreach programme. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international concert halls reaffirmed his belief that, in his words, "The audience is always involved in making the music. As a conductor, I need an audience there as much as the musicians."

Yamada studied music at Tokyo University of the Arts, where he discovered a love for both Mozart and the Russian Romantic repertoire. He first gained international attention upon receiving first prize in the 51st International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors in 2009. Having lived in Japan for most of his life, Yamada now resides in Berlin.