Born in Japan, Takuo Yuasa studied piano, cello, flute and clarinet as a child. When he was eighteen he moved to the USA to study at the University of Cincinnati, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in theory and composition. He continued his studies in Europe, with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna, Franco Ferrara in Siena, and Igor Markevich in France. He then became assistant to the veteran Yugoslav conductor Lovro von Matačič, working with him in Monte Carlo, Milan and Vienna. Success at the Fitelberg International Conducting Competition in Katowice, Poland, where Yuasa won a Special Award, resulted in many invitations to conduct this country’s major orchestras, including the Warsaw National Philharmonic and Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestras.

In his home country of Japan, Takuo Yuasa conducts several of the principal orchestras, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic and New Japan Philharmonic, and the Osaka Century Orchestra, with whom he has recently led complete cycles of the symphonies of Brahms and Schumann. He has an active career in the Far East, having appeared with the Adelaide Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, Queensland Symphony and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. In Europe he has conducted the Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Lahti Symphony, Luxemburg Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio, National Symphony of Ireland and Brabants Orkest. He has a home in Scotland and frequently works with British orchestras including the Bournemouth Symphony, London Philharmonic, Halle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Royal Scottish National. He has a strong relationship with young musicians and works with the national youth orchestras of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as with several major conservatory orchestras.

Yuasa has held positions as chief conductor of the Gumma Symphony Orchestra in Japan, principal guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland, enjoying much success with each. An exclusive Naxos recording artist, his large discography includes many contemporary works, by both Western and Eastern composers. Notable releases include, by contemporary composers, Benjamin Britten’s Cello Symphony and Violin Concerto, Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto, Graeme Koehne’s Inflight Entertainment and Powerhouse, James MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, Michael Nyman’s Piano Concerto, Arvo Part’s Symphony No. 3 and Tabula Rasa, and John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, as well as Yasushi Akutagawa’s Ellora Symphony and Trinita Sinfonica, Sadao Bekku’s Symphonies Nos 1 and 2, Toshiro Mayuzumi’s Mandala Symphony and Rumba Rhapsody, and Masao Ohki’s Symphony No. 5 ‘Hiroshima’. He has also championed works by English and American composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Edward MacDowell’s Suites Nos 1 and 2 and tone poem Hamlet and Ophelia, Alan Rawsthorne’s Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2, and Edmund Rubbra’s Violin Concerto. Yuasa has also recorded Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade and orchestral excerpts from the stage works of Benjamin Britten for EMI; and Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 for ABC Classics.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Conductors, Naxos 8.558087–90).