Kazuhiro KOIZUMI

Originally from Kyoto, Kazuhiro Koizumi enrolled at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1969 to study conducting under Kazuo Yamada, before becoming, in the following year, the first prize winner of the 2nd Min-On Competition for Conducting (currently known as the Tokyo International Music Competition for Conducting).

Koizumi was one of the founding conductors of the New Japan Philharmonic established in July 1972. The same year, he began to study opera conducting with professor Hans Martin Rabenstein at the Berlin Hochschule. Koizumi was also trained at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Boston in the summer 1973.

After winning the first prize at the 3rd Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition in 1973, Koizumi made his Berlin debut conducting the Berlin Philharmonic.

During his period as Music Director of the New Japan Philharmonic from 1975 to 1979, Koizumi was also invited to lead the Berlin Philharmonic for its subscription concert in 1975 and shared the stage with the legendary Anton Rubinstein, Mstislav Rostropovich and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in 1976 and participated in the Salzburg Festival conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in the same year. Following these successes, he has received invitations to lead orchestras from all over Europe including the Munich Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the North American Continent, his highly praised performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in 1978 led him to be invited, two years later, to conduct the orchestra's subscription concert in Boston, which caught the music world's attention. Also, he has appeared as a guest conductor with the Detroit, Cincinnati, Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras to name a few.

Koizumi served as Music Director (1983 to 1989) at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Canada, and Conductor (1986 to 1989) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Since 1988, he has been invited regularly to conduct the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra based in London, and this fruitful collaboration has come to numerous outstanding performances as well as Tchaikovsky's 4th, 5th and 6th Symphonies' recordings.

Koizumi led the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra as Principal Conductor (1989 to 1996), the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra (formerly the Century Orchestra Osaka) as Principal Guest Conductor (1992 to 1995), Principal Conductor (2003 to 2008) and Music Director (2008 to 2014), the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra as Principal Conductor (1995 to 1998), Principal Guest Conductor (1998 to 2008) and Resident Conductor (2008 to 2014) and the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Guest Conductor (2006 to 2018).

Currently, Koizumi holds the posts of the Honorary Conductor for Life at the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Honorary Music Director for Life at the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, the Honorary Music Director of the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and the Special Guest Conductor of the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra.