Kazuyoshi Akiyama was appointed conductor for life of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and has conducted other international orchestras and distinguished himself for his support of contemporary music. Born in Tokyo on January 2, 1941, he studied piano from the age of three with his mother, a teacher, and at fifteen entered the Toho Gakuen School of Music. Trained also in horn and percussion, he followed in the footsteps of Seiji Ozawa with his conducting teacher Hideo Saito, and made his debut in 1964 with the Tokyo Symphonic Orchestra, becoming its permanent principal conductor. His Japanese premieres include works by European composers such as Schönberg's Moses and Aaron, Janáček's The Cutting Little Vixen and the opera Káťa Kabanová, and John Adams' oratorio El Niño. Kazuyoshi Akiyama also holds a number of other positions. After a position as assistant conductor with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1968-1969), he was appointed principal conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (1972-1985) and The American Symphony Orchestra (1973-1978), followed by the Saito Kinen Orchestra (1984) and the Syracus Symphony Orchestra (1985-1993). In 1995, he was recruited by the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, becoming its honorary conductor until his death. On the recording front, Akiyama has made a point of introducing contemporary works by Alfred Reed, Robert Jager, Jan Van der Roost, Roberto Cesarini, Malcolm Arnold and Johan De Meij, which he records with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and the Osaka Municipal Symphonic Band. He also conducts Keith Jarrett in the album Barber - Bartók - Jarrett (2015), and is performing a cycle of Brahms symphonies in public. Honored by numerous institutions, Kazuyoshi Akiyama died of pneumonia on January 26, 2025, at the age of 84.
