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Appearing

conductor and harpsicord / Masato Suzuki*

piano / Tomoki Sakata

Song List

© Marco Borggreve

Masato Suzuki*（conductor and harpsicord）

A multifaceted musician, Masato Suzuki appears on the concert platform in the capacity of conductor, composer and keyboard player. On the conducting podium, this season sees Suzuki return to both the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras as well as making his debut as a conductor with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, having performed Copland’s Symphony for Organ and Orchestra with them last season. In addition, Suzuki works with orchestras including the Japan Philharmonic, Sendai Philharmonic and Tokyo Philharmonic, as well as the Hiroshima Symphony, Ensemble Kanazawa and Kyushu Symphony Orchestras. His repertoire is varied with many programmes featuring contrasting composers including works by Bach, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Rameau, Stravinsky and Takemitsu. As Principal Conductor of Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki made his subscription series conducting debut with the ensemble directing Bach’s St John Passion and Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea; on tour, he has taken them to the Thüringen Bachwochen and last season to the Varazdin Baroque Festival. December 2019 sees BIS release the first disc of the complete Bach Harpsichord concerti Suzuki has recorded with Bach Collegium Japan leading from the keyboard. Suzuki makes his conducting debut with the Singapore Symphony and the Academy of Ancient Music in London this season following his debut at the Edinburgh Festival with musicians from the Dunedin Consort. Other festival appearances as a recitalist and chamber musician include the Chofu International Music Festival (of which he is Artistic Director and Executive Producer), Schleswig Holstein and Verbier. He continues a collaboration with violist Antoine Tamestit touring an all Bach programme centred on the three viola da gamba sonatas; their recording of these works was released by Harmonia Mundi in August 2019. Suzuki’s composition portfolio includes works for both instrumental ensembles and choir; his work is published by Schott Japan and he has received recent commissions from Sette Voci, Tokyo Musik Kreis and Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall among others. Suzuki’s reconstruction of lost movements of J.S. Bach’s Cantata BWV190 (Carus) and his completion and revision of Mozart’s Requiem have been highly praised. Suzuki studied Composition and Early Music at the Tokyo University for Fine Arts and Music before studying Organ and Improvisation at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. （from HarrisonParrott Website)

© HIDEKI NAMAI

Tomoki Sakata（piano）

Japanese pianist Tomoki Sakata “demonstrated virtuosity, considerable color and expressivity” (Dallas Morning News) during the 2013 Cliburn Competition, earning him a place among the top six finalists. Since just 19 years old, he has been building a reputation for a “youthful overabundance of talent” that creates “its own visceral excitement” (Theater Jones). Mr. Sakata won the 4th prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2021, and the 1st Prize along with 6 special prizes at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition 2016 in Budapest by a unanimous vote. He has made recital, chamber and concerto appearances throughout Europe, Asia, the U.S.A and Africa, in such major concert halls as Leipzig Gewandhaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Rudolfinum, Müpa Budapest, Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Salle Cortot, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Teatro Grande di Brescia, and Suntory Hall, as soloist with Staatskapelle Halle, Belgian National Orchestra, Czech National Symphony, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Hungarian Radio Symphony, Hungarian State Opera, Sofia Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Orchestre Phiharmonique du Maroc, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, working with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Alexander Lazarev, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Vladimír Válek, Sascha Goetzel, Jonathon Heyward, Howard Griffiths, Hugh Wolff, János Kovács, Andrea Battistoni, Tadaaki Otaka, Eiji Oue, and Kazushi Ono, as a chamber musician, working with the members of Tokyo Quartet, Brentano Quartet, to name a few. His performances have been broadcast on the Radio and TV in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, the U.S.A., and Japan. Sakata has been invited in numerous international music festivals, including Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Kissinger Sommer (Germany), Beethovenfest Bonn (Germany), International Music Festival “Janáčkův máj” (Czech Republic), Brussels Piano Festival (Belgium), International Festival “Musical Kremlin” (Russia), and Spring Festival in Tokyo (Japan). Also active as a composer and arranger, Mr. Sakata’s works have been performed at major concert halls in Japan by leading artists. His piano arrangements are published by Ongaku no Tomo Edition. He made his debut as a conductor with the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, conducting 2 Mozart Concertos from the keyboard and Japan Premiere of a symphonic work by Liszt, in February 2022. Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1993, Mr. Sakata began piano lessons at the age of 5 and began improvising and composing at age 6. He studied composition under Masayuki Nagatomi and Hinoharu Matsumoto. He had been a private student of Paul Badura-Skoda for 10 years since the age of 16. Sakata was admitted as a youngest student of The Lake Como International Piano Academy, where he had taken masterclasses by Dimitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, and Tamás Vásáry. He is currently studying with Arie Vardi at Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.