Takuo Yuasa was born in Osaka, where he studied piano, cello, flute and clarinet. At 18 he left Japan to study in the United States at the University of Cincinnati, before studying conducting in Europe with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Hochschule, then with Igor Markevitch in France and with Franco Ferrara in Siena before he became assistant to Lovro von Matačić, working with him in Monte Carlo, Milan and Vienna. Since winning a special award at the Fitelberg International Conducting Competition in Katowice, Poland, Takuo Yuasa has frequently conducted the major Polish orchestras, including the Warsaw National Philharmonic and Polish Radio National Symphony orchestras. He regularly performs throughout Europe and the Far East. In Japan he has held the position of principal conductor with the Gunma Symphony Orchestra and in the United Kingdom he has been principal guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland. He has a successful recording career as an exclusive Naxos artist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and others, with a wide range of repertoire which covers Britten, MacMillan, Rawsthorne, Webern, Schoenberg, Honegger, Vieuxtemps, MacDowell, Schubert, Rimsky-Korsakov, Pärt, Górecki, Glass and Nyman, and the Japanese composers Mayuzumi, Ohki, Bekku, Yashiro, Moroi, Akutagawa and Yamada. This versatility is recognised by orchestras around the world, who engage him to conduct standard core repertoire as well as less well-known pieces by major composers.