New Japan Philharmonic Announces Next Music Director 

Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado will assume the role for a four-year term, from April 2023 until March 2027

(Photo credit: Jun Yoshimura)

He will succeed Toshiyuki Kamioka, who held the post since 2016 and first conducted the New Japan Philharmonic (NJP) in 1988. 

Yutaka  Sado’s 2023 appointment will make him the fifth music director of the orchestra since it was founded in 1972 by Seiji Ozawa. Before his directorship begins, Sado will serve in an advisory position as music director designate of the NJP, effective as of April 2022. 

Having studied with Leonard Bernstein and Ozawa, Sado won the 1989 Besancon International Conductor Competition and the 1995 Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Music Competition. 

In 1990, he was appointed Conductor in Residence of the Pacific Music Festival, which was founded by Bernstein.

Between 1993 and 2010, he was the principal conductor of Paris’ Orchestre Lamoureux. Currently, he is music director of the Tonkünstler Orchestra, artistic director of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center, and principal conductor of the Siena Wind Orchestra.