Page 13 - FINAL_CBSO Media Highlights - Sept 2021 - Jan 2022_Neat

Happy to be part of the CBSO family ... Kazuki Yamada.

“For me, the best thing about the CBSO is they know how to enjoy music,” he says. “We
always create something fresh and exciting. There is always a very warm atmosphere. I
am always happy to see them, and am so happy to be part of their family.”

One of the first commitments in his new role will be to take the orchestra on tour to
Japan. A Proms debut for summer 2023 is in the diary, and he hopes to introduce (or
reacquiant) audiences to Japanese composers, citing Toru Takemitsu, Akira Miyoshi
and Toshiro Mayuzumi as three whose work he particularly admires. “I’d like to
introduce Japanese culture through music,” he says. Mozart’s music, too, is a particular
favourite. “Big symphony orchestras don’t often play his music [written for smaller
forces] but I’d like to do more of it. The late symphonies … Magic Flute,” he suggests.

“French music is a strength of his, likewise Russian music and his Schumann (the
second symphony) was revelatory,” says Maddock, “and we’re hoping to do some
Mahler. Choral, contemporary and British music will, of course, feature, too, in our
programming. He’s still discovering Elgar – he did the first symphony with the youth
orchestra pre-pandemic.”

Yamada lives in Berlin with his wife, an orchestral musician, and their two children
aged 11 and six. He already knows Birmingham a little and loves its mix of old and new
– and the city’s huge and varied array of Indian restaurants, he laughs, admitting to a
partiality for a Birminghamcurry.

He emphasises the vital role orchestras play in bringing young people to classical music
through education, family and children’s concerts. “But first, we on the stage have to
enjoy it. We have to entertain, we have to give 100% energy for every concert. If
audiences see us enjoying ourselves, they will come again. We have to always present
music as a gift.”

Yamada conducts the CBSO at Symphony Hall on 16 and 18 September; a concert
concert featuring music by Glazunov, Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Takemitsu is available to
watch on Marquee TV.