Communicating without Words
Portrait of Kazuki Yamada

The conductor Kazuki Yamada describes his first orchestral encounter as a “mystery”. He makes his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in June. 

Kazuki Yamada began the New Year in his native Japan, giving a series of concerts in Osaka and Tokyo. Although he was born in Hadano in Japan in 1979, he has lived in Berlin for some years, and takes over as chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester there in autumn of 2026. This is not Kazuki Yamada’s first chief position; in 2023, he became music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, adding this new appointment to his existing portfolio as music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, a post he has held since 2016. By now, his name is on the invitation list of many other leading orchestras. During the current season he will make his debut with two of the US's “big five” orchestras - the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. This season also marks a special debut on his home turf - with the Berliner Philharmoniker debut.  

Conducting with Confidence

Whenever time permits, Kazuki Yamada likes to attend the orchestra’s concerts in the Philharmonie, and has often imagined himself on the podium – “but not so soon!” he admits. “I’d assumed that I’d be older - say, sixty.”  When the 46-year-old received the news, words at first failed Yamada; but then, he says, he might have screamed just a little. In Birmingham his predecessors included Andris Nelsons and Sir Simon Rattle, and the appointment proved a game-changer for him. “Since I became music director there, I’ve received more and more enquiries from major orchestras,” he explains.

Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra seem well-matched. In an interview, one of the section leaders praised the conductor: “He trusts us – and this allows the musicians to blossom, since they don’t feel under any pressure.” He has, the instrumentalist said, “a crystal-clear vision of the music: there is never any doubt about how things should be. He knows exactly what’s going on in every section of the orchestra – it’s almost alarming to find someone with such an incredible overview.” This characterization reflects Yamada’s work ethic: “Whenever I appear before an orchestra for the very first time, I try to sense its tradition and gauge the mood, ” he says. “Sometimes I can adjust things, but at other times it’s better to follow the ideas of the orchestra.  It’s like communicating without words.” Every initial encounter with an orchestra, including his first one with the Berliner Philharmoniker in June, is always “a kind of mystery,” Yamada says.

A repertoire between East and West

Kazuki Yamada’s debut programme includes Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony”. This is a work that he knows well. “I love French music - it’s one of the cornerstones of my repertoire,” he says. “The first half of the concert, however, isn’t so typical of my work.” Ottorino Respighi’s symphonic poem Fontane di Roma opens the programme. Next up is Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu’s enigmatic I Hear the Water Dreaming with the Berliner Philharmoniker’s principal flautist Emmanuel Pahud as soloist. Takemitsu provides a link between the plashing water of Rome’s fountains and Saint-Saëns’s magnificent “Organ Symphony”. As the conductor explains, “Tōru Takemitsu and his music were powerfully influenced by the French composers of the early modern period”.

Kazuki Yamada was close to Seiji Ozawa, who died in February 2024. Despite his triumphs in Europe and the United States, Yamada continues to maintain close ties with his native Japan. In 2023, shortly after taking up his new position in Birmingham, he took the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to the Japan, and last year he toured there with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo. He spent six years as principal guest conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and continues to appear regularly as a guest conductor with all of Japan’s leading orchestras. He also sees a connection between the Japanese language and music. “In Japanese even a short word with only a few letters can have lots of different meanings which have to be decoded. This sort of imagination is also helpful whenever I read a score, since the notes have similarly different interpretative possibilities.”