Tetsuro BAN

General Music Director of the Theater Regensburg in Germany since 2009/10

Tetsuro Ban's successful career is characterized by his extensive guest conducting across Europe, where he has been invited by around 40 orchestras and opera houses in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and elsewhere. He has conducted most of the major orchestras in Japan, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and opera companies such as the New National Theatre Tokyo and Tokyo Nikikai.

In winter 2008-09 he conducted a run of Die Fledermaus at the Vienna Volksoper which became the main attraction of the season, receiving great critical acclaim. The headline of the local website for opera "Operinwien" read "Gelungene Silvesterstimmung", and praised the performance saying the following.

http://www.operinwien.at/werkverz/straussj/afleder.htm

He has conducted many operas including Falstaff, Carmen, Pelleas and Melisande, The Tales of Hoffmann, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Orphee aux enfers, at venues like the Vienna Volksoper, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Theater Basel in Switzerland, and the New National Theatre. His conducting career, already established in Germany, has continued to attract wider attention through his concerts and operas in Europe.

Born in Kyoto, Ban studied composition with renowned composers like Ryohei Hirose at the Kyoto Municipal Art Academy. After graduation, he started his studies in conducting under professors Karl Oesterreicher, Leopold Hager, and Yuji Yuasa at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

Ban was 1st Kapellmeister at the Theater Biel, Switzerland during the 1992 - 93 season, 1st Kapellmeister at the Brandenburg Theater, Germany in the 1997 - 98 season and became Kappelmeister at the Komische Oper Berlin in the 1998 - 99 season. Between his appointment and July 2002, he conducted more than 170 performances of around 20 operas and concerts, including Orfeo ed Euridice in a new production by Harry Kupfer in 1999, Falstaff as directed by Andreas Homoki in 2000, and Rigoletto, in a new production by Martin Schuler in February 2001.

He was appointed General Music Director at the Theater Eisenach in Germany beginning in the 2005-2006 season, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra from April 2007, becoming General Music Director of the Theater Regensburg starting in the 2009 - 2010 season.

He won the First Prize in the Besancon International Conductor's Competition in France in 1995, received honorable mention at the Kyoto Cultural Awards in 1996, the ABC Asahi Broadcasting Corporation International Music Award in 1997, the Kyoto City New Artist Award and the Second Hotel Okura Music Award in 2000, the 12th Akio Watanabe Music Foundation Award in 2004, and the 26th Kenichiro Todo Music Award in 2006.