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Heiichiro Ohyama, Music Director and Conductor Heiichiro Ohyama has a long-established reputation as a remarkable conductor and one of most renowned violists in United States. He is 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 and Franco Gulli, and chamber music with Janos Starker, Gerge Scevok and Manahem 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, and 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 L.A. 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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