Toshi Shimada

Bio:

TOSHIYUKI SHIMADA is Music Director and Conductor of Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra in New London; Music Director and Conductor of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes; and has been 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, for which he served as Music Director from 1986 to 2006. Prior to his Portland engagement, he was Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for six years, beginning in 1981. Since 1998, he has also served as Principal Conductor of the Vienna Modern Masters record label in Austria. This season, in addition to his regular responsibilities, he will be making a return engagement with Orquesta Filharmónica de Jalisco in Mexico, a debut engagement with Jiangsu Symphony Orchestra in China, and will be conducting Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra of Czech Republic on the Vienna Modern Masters recording projects. Maestro Shimada has been a frequent guest conductor with a number of international orchestras, including the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in Vilnius; the Orquesta Filharmónica de Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico; the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra; Karlovy Vařy (Karlsbad) Symphony Orchestra; the Prague Chamber Orchestra; the Slovak Philharmonic; NÖ Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna; L’Orchestre National de Lille in France; and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival. He has also guest conducted the Houston Symphony, Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, San José Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, New York Chamber Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and many other US and Canadian orchestras. In May and June, 2010, the Yale Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Shimada made a highly successful tour in the Republic of Turkey, performing in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, and in 2008, they toured in Italy performing in Rome, Florence, Bologna and Milan. Also, this past spring he was invited to conduct the United States Coast Guard Band following another guest conductor, Leonard Slatkin who conducted last season. In addition to these activities, he has held the position of Artistic Adviser of the Tulare County Symphony Orchestra in California, of which he served from 2007 to 2009. 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. He has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Andre Watts, Peter Serkin, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Idil Biret, Peter Frankl, Janos Starker, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Nadjia Salerno-Sonnenberg, Cho-Liang Lin, Sir James Galway, Evelyn Glennie, Barry Tuckwell, and Doc Severinsen. Maestro Shimada has had the good fortune to study with many distinguished conductors of the past and the present, including Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Herbert Blomstedt, Hans Swarovsky, and Michael Tilson Thomas. 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. In addition, he was named Ariel Musician of the Year in 2003 by Ariel Records, and received the ASCAP award in1989. He has also consistently became an integral and beloved member of every community he joined, receiving the Portland Fire Department's Merit Award, the Maine Publicity Bureau Cultural Award, and the Italian Heritage Society Cultural Award, and having a number of days named in his honor: Toshiyuki Shimada Day in Houston, TX, Toshiyuki Shimada Week in Portland, Maine, and Toshiyuki Shimada Day in the State of Maine. In May 2006 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts by the Maine College of Arts. At the Yale University, he has been selected as the Fellow of the Davenport College and a member of the Elizabethan Club. He records extensively with the Vienna Modern Masters label, and with the Moravian Philharmonic, and currently he has fifteen Compact Discs. He also records for the Capstone Records, the Querstand-VKJK (Germany) and the Albany Records. His recording of Gregory Hutter's Skyscrapers has been released through the Naxos label. Maestro Shimada holds a teaching position at Yale University, as Associate Professor of Conducting with Yale School of Music and Department of Music, and co-founder of Leipzig Music Festival Conducting Course, in Germany. He lives in Connecticut, USA, with his wife, a concert pianist Eva Virsik. ..realeditorbest profile tools..realeditorbest profile tools

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Member Since:

February 29, 2008

Members:

My full name is TOSHIYUKI SHIMADA Contact: tshimada@toshiyukishimada.com Management: William Reinert Associate, Inc. www.williamreinert.com +1 212 799 5365 info@williamreinert.com

Influences:

Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Evgeny Mravinsky, Maris Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Sergiu Comissiona, Herbert Blomstedt, David Whitwell, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Josquin des Prez, J.S. Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Josef Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johaness Brahms, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, Anton Bruckner, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Antonin Dvorak, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, Witold Lutoslawski, Die Berliner Philharmoniker, Die Wiener Philharmoniker, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, James Galway, Itzhak Perlman, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Mirella Freni, Eva Virsik, Rudolf Jettel, Dominick Fera, Toru Takemitsu, Shusaku Endo, Akira Kurosawa, Musashi Miyamoto, Masaharu Morimoto, J.M.W. Turner, Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt, Monsignor Charles Murphy, RED SOX!

Sounds Like:

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