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Heiichiro
Ohyama has a long-established reputation as a remarkable
conductor and one of most renowned violists in
United States.
He is the Music Director and Conductor of the Santa Barbara
Chamber Orchestra in the US and also the Music Advisor and
Principal Conductor of the Osaka Symphoniker, Japan.
Born in Kyoto,
Japan, Mr. Ohyama studied violin and chamber music at the
Toho
Music
High School
and College under Toshiya Eto and Hideo Saito. He graduated
from London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1970
studying under Yfrah Neaman, William Pleeth and Thurston Dart.
He then entered Indiana University where he studied viola with
William Primrose, violin with Josef Gingold, Ruggiero Ricci,
Franco Gulli, and chamber music with Janos Starker, Gerge Scevok,
Manaham Pressler. He later taught as a Visiting Lecturer at the
Indiana University. As a student he won the BBC Beethoven
Competition, British Council Music Scholarship, and Carl Flesch
International Violin Competition as well as both the violin and
viola competitions at Indiana University.
In 1974, he won
the Young Concert Artist Award of New York. After being a
participant in the Marlboro Music Festival for several summers,
he became increasingly in demand as a violist and has performed
throughout the United States and abroad. He has also
participated as a chamber musician at many festivals including
Casals Festival, Kuhumo International Music Festival (Finland),
Okinawa Moon Beach Music Festival (Japan), Brescia and Bergamo
Festivals (Italy), Chamber Music Northwest, Sarasota Music
Festival and Caramor Chamber Music Festival. He has collaborated
with many great musicians including: Emanuel Ax, Myung-Whun
Chung, Lynn Harrell, Gerry Hoffman, Gidon Kremer, Jaime Laredo,
Cho-Liang Lin, Radu Lupu, Andre- Michel Schub, Takahiro Sonoda,
Isaac Stern, Kyoko Takezawa, Pinchas Zukerman.
In 1979 he was
named Principal Violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under
Carlo Maria Giulini, a position he held for 13 years. He began
conducting the Youth String Orchestra of the Crossroads School
for Sciences and Arts in 1981. Mr. Ohyama was appointed as the
Music Director and Conductor of the Santa Barbara Chamber
Orchestra in 1983, and he was appointed to the position of
Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under
Maestro Andre Previn in 1986. During his four years in this
position he conducted the LA Philharmonic in numerous concerts,
including subscription concerts at the Los Angeles Music Center,
the Hollywood Bowl and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute.
Mr. Ohyama has
also held the positions of Principal Conductor of the Round Top
Music Festival in Texas, Music Director and Conductor of the
Northwest Chamber Orchestra in Seattle, Music Director and
Conductor of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra in New York, Principal
Chief Conductor of Kyushu Symphony Orchestra and Artistic
Director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the La Jolla
Chamber Music Society’s SummerFest La Jolla. He was a professor of music at the
University of
California, Santa Barbara for 30 years.
In 1990, Mr.
Ohyama made his European conducting debut with the Orchestra of
the Opera de Lyon and in two concerts with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
Since then, he has made many conducting appearances, including
the San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Baltimore
Symphony, Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra (Germany), Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra (England), Hale Symphony (England), New
York Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Singapore
Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan) and in
Japan, Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Symphony Orchestra,
Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra. He also
took the Asia America Symphony Orchestra on a tour of Japan in
1992. In 2004, he received the
City of Fukuoka Cultural Award. Mr. Ohyama has performed and appeared frequently both on radio and
television and has recorded on the CBS, Evica, King-Japan,
Nonesuch, Philips, RCA, and Stereophiles labels.
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