Tateo Nakajima

Tateo Nakajima is a former orchestra conductor, a partner and acoustical expert for the concert hall consulting firm Artec Consultants; in 2013 Artec became part of Arup. In the past he has worked as lead consultant for conductors, orchestras and opera companies that include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, New World Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.^[1] He has also worked with notable persons such as Christoph Eschenbach, Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Möst, Myung-whun Chung, Michael Tilson Thomas, Stewart Robertson, Iván Fisher, and Valery Gergiev. Nakajima recently received credit for acoustical designs of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra concert hall Maison symphonique at Place des Arts in Montreal.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Background

Tateo Nakajima received his early training in violin performance in Toronto, Canada, where he graduated from Upper Canada College and the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1988. He then underwent graduate studies at the Utrechts Conservatorium in the Netherlands, working with Viktor Liberman and Hirschhorn. It was at this time that he started formal training in orchestral conducting with Gilbert Varga and Charles Bruck. After his first professional conducting experiences in Lyon, France, he then spent 4 years as a Principal Conductor of the Timisoara State Opera in Romania, during which time he guest conducted widely. It was during this time that he also conducted a new production of ballet at the Vienna State Opera working with Renato Zanella, at the invitation of Ioan Hollender.^[11]

Career

In 1999, while conducting at the Lucerne Concert Hall, Nakajima met Russell Johnson, a world renown acoustician and chairman of Artec. The late founder felt that his professional background in conducting and violin performance could be particularly pertinent to Artec’s work with artists and in the planning and design of Artec’s next generation of performing arts venues. Therefore, Johnson invited Nakajima to join the company and by 2001 he officially joined the firm. Through Artec, he had the honor of working with and conducting the Witold Lutoslawski Philharmonic Orchestra in Wrocław, Poland, and also the Aarhus Sinfoniorkester in its new Artec concert hall.^[1]

Nakajima had a close working relationship with Russell Johnson on many of his projects since joining Artec that allowed him to learn design through experience.^[12] After Johnson died in 2007, he took on more responsibilities and began leading the Artec team as Project Director and Principal Auditorium Designer. He led the Artec design team working with such architectural firms as Coop Himmelb(l)au, Foreign Office Architects, Herzog de Meuron, Andy Bromberg of AEDAS, and Zaha Hadid.^[13] In 2009, as a guest speaker and representative of Artec, Nakajima was invited to the Hong Kong Design Centre for its Business of Design Week.^[14][15]

Nakakima also acoustically helped design various projects that included the Salle Pleyel renovation in Paris, France; the Chicago Orchestra Hall renovation study, the Mariinsky II Opera House Basic Design for Valery Gergiev, the Aarhus concert hall in Denmark and the new Montreal concert hall, La Maison Symphonique de Montréal in Canada.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}

In 2011, Nakajima was invited to speak at LIVE! Singapore 2011.^[23]

Projects

The following is a list of well known concert halls and projects Nakajima collaborated on:

• Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
• Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia
• Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, Switzerland
• Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center (platform upgrade study) Dallas, Texas, USA
• Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa
• Meyerson Symphony Center with I. M. Pei
• Maison Symphonique de Montréal La Maison Symphonique de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
• Accolade Project - Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA
• Boettcher Concert Hall (renovation study) Denver, Colorado, USA
• Mystetskij Arsenal - Center for Ukrainian Music, Kiev, Ukraine
• Chicago Orchestra Hall (consultation) Chicago, USA
• Concert Hall - Kulturforum Westfalen, Münster, Germany
• Darat King Abdullah II Performing Arts Center, Amman, Jordan
• Grand Théâtre du Bouregreg, Rabat, Morocco
• Mariinsky Theatre (consultation), St. Petersburg, Russia
• The Bartók National Concert Hall, Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary
• Mariinsky II Opera House, St. Petersburg, Russia
• Musikhuset Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
• National Music Forum, Wrocław, Poland
• Musikkens Hus, Aalborg, Denmark
• Salle Pleyel, Paris, France (renovation)
• Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
• The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore
• Zarautz Arts Centre, Zarautz, Spain^[11]

References

External links

• Artec Consultants