Toshiyuki Shimada
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Toshiyuki Shimada is Music Director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra of Yale University since 2005. He is also Music Director Laureate of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, in Portland, Maine, which he was Music Director from 1986 to 2006. Prior to Portland, he was Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for six years, beginning in 1981. He also serves as Principal Conductor of the Vienna Modern Masters, in Austria since 1998. In addition, he is Music Director and Chief Creative Officer of the Trinity Music Partners, LLC, which holds the worldwide rights to the Vatican Library Music Collection. Since January, 2008, he serves as Aristic Advisor of the Tulare County Symphony in California.
His upcoming engagements include guest conducting appearances with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in Vilnius; the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra in New London, CT; and the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes in Corning/Elmira, NY. On May and June of this year, the Yale Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Shimada will be making the Italian tour performing in Rome, Florence, Bologna and Milan.
Maestro Shimada has been a frequent guest conductor of the European orchestras such as the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic, NÖ Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna, Le Orchestre National de Lille, in France, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival, to name a few.
He has also guest conducted the Houston Symphony, Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, San Jose Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, New York Chamber Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and many other US and Canadian orchestras. He has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Andre Watts, Emanual Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Janos Starker, Jashua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Nadjia Salerno-Sonnenberg, Cho-Liang Lin, James Galway, Evelyn Glennie, Barry Tuckwell, and Doc Severinsen.
In addition to these activities, he has held the position as Music Director of the Nassau Symphony Orchestra, in New York, Music Director of the Cambiata Soloists, a contemporary music ensemble in Houston, Music Director of the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra at Rice University, and Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles.
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[edit] Awards and Honors
He was a finalist in the 1979 Herbert von Karajan conducting competition in Berlin, and a Fellow Conductor in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, in 1983. He has received many awards and honors such as Ariel Musician of the Year in 2003 from the Ariel Records, ASCAP award, Portland Fire Department's Merit Award, the Maine Publicity Bureau Cultural Award, the Italian Heritage Society Cultural Award, Toshiyuki Shimada Day in Houston, TX, Toshiyuki Shimada Week in Portland, Maine, and Toshiyuki Shimada Day in the State of Maine. On May, 2006, he was awarded Honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts by the Maine College of Arts.
[edit] Recording Activities
Maestro Shimada is very active in the recording industry, namely with the Vienna Modern Masters label, and with the Moravian Philharmonic, and currently he has fourteen Compact Discs. The newest CD titled “Toshiyuki Shimada Conducts” has been issued in April, 2007. He also records for the Capstone Records and the Albany Records. His recording of Renaissance, Baroque and Classical works with the Prague Chamber Orchestra and Prague Chamber Singers will soon to be released by the Trinity Music Partners, LLC, in the Vatican Music Library Collection label. On January, 2008, a new Naxos recording of Gregory Hutter's Music has been released.
[edit] Education
Maestro Shimada was fortunate to study with many distinguished conductors of the past and the present such as Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Herbert Blomstedt, Hans Swarovsky, Michael Tilson Thomas and David Whitwell.
He was born in Tokyo, Japan, and moved to the United States when he was 15. He has attended the University of Southern California, the California State University, Northridge and the University of Vienna for Music and Performing Art. He has also studied the clarinet with Dominick Fera in California and Rudolf Jettel in Vienna. He was selected as a fellow conductor for the Herbert Blomsted International Conducting Institute, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute.
[edit] Teaching Positions
In the educational field, he is currently Associate Professor of Conducting in both the Yale School of Music and Department of Music in Yale University. In the past, he has taught at the University of Southern Maine and Rice University, and was Artist Faculty of the Texas Institute of the Aesthetic Study.
