Masaaki Suzuki: Difference between revisions

| image = Masaaki_Suzuki_in_QEH.jpg

| caption = Masaaki Suzuki in 2023

| othernamenative_name = 鈴木 雅明

| children = YutoMasato Suzuki (conductor, organist)

{{nihongo|'''Masaaki Suzuki'''|鈴木 雅明|Suzuki Masaaki|born 29 April 1954}} is a Japanese [[pipe organ|organist]], [[harpsichord]]ist and, [[Conducting|conductor]], and the founder and musicalmusic director of the [[Bach Collegium Japan]]. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] for the Swedish label [[BIS Records]], for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also Artistan artist-in -residence at [[Yale University]] and directorthe principal guest conductor of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.

Suzuki was born in [[Kobe]] to parents who were both Protestant [[Christianity|Christians]]<ref name="Yale" /> and amateur musicians; his father had worked professionally as a pianist.<ref name="sundaybaroque.org">{{cite web|url = http://www.sundaybaroque.org/interviews/msinterview_040514.mp3|title = Interview with Masaaki Suzuki on her public-radio program Sunday Baroque|date = April 2014 |website = Sunday Baroque |last = Bona|first = Suzanne|url-status = dead|archiveurlarchive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140714111619/http://www.sundaybaroque.org/interviews/msinterview_040514.mp3 |archivedatearchive-date = 2014-07-14}}</ref> Suzuki has as an adult joined the [[Reformed Church in Japan]], a [[Calvinist]] denomination.<ref name= "Spectator-2016-03-12">{{cite web | url= https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/03/does-the-great-bach-conductor-masaaki-suzuki-think-his-audience-will-burn-in-hell/

| first=Damian | last=Thompson | author-link=Damian Thompson | work =[[The Spectator]] | date= 12 March 2016 | access-date= 2019-06-20}}</ref> Masaaki Suzuki began playing organ professionally at church services at the age of 12.<ref name= "sundaybaroque.org"/> He earned degrees in composition and organ at the [[Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music]], then earned Soloist Diplomas at the [[Conservatorium van Amsterdam|Sweelinck Conservatory]] in [[Amsterdam]], where he studied harpsichord and organ with [[Ton Koopman]] and [[Piet Kee]] and improvisation with [[Klaas Bolt]].<ref name= "Yale" /><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.grovemusic.com/ |title= Grove music|website=Grovemusic.com |accessdateaccess-date= 2017-04-12}}</ref>

From 1981 to 1983 he was a harpsichord instructor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in [[Duisburg]], Germany. In 1983 he returned to Japan, where he began teaching at [[Kobe Shoin Women's University]]. In 1990 he founded [[Bach Collegium Japan]], a [[baroque orchestra]] and chorus. The group began givingperforming concerts regularly in 1992, and made its first recordings three years later, when they began recording Bach's complete [[cantata]]s for the Swedish label [[BIS Records]].<ref name= "Leipzig" /> They completed the 55-volume series of [[Church cantata (Bach)|church cantatas]] in 2013. They completed Bach's secular cantatas (in 10 albums) in 2018. They have also recorded all of Bach's Lutheran Masses. The ensemble has also recorded all the large choral works of Bach; their [[St. John Passion]] and [[Christmas Oratorio]] were both selected as ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]''’s "Recommended Recordings," and the St. John Passion was also winner in the 18th and 19th-century choral music category at the [[Cannes Classical Awards]] in 2000. Their recording of Bach's Motets won a German Record Critics’ Award ([[Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik]]), [[Diapason d'Or]] of the Year 2010 and a [[BBC Music Magazine]] Award in 2011; their recording of the [[Mass in B Minor]] won the [[Diapason d'Or]] in 2008.

Suzuki has also, with the Bach Collegium Japan, recorded the [[Requiem (Mozart)|Requiem]] of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] and choral music of [[Johann Rudolf Ahle]], [[Georg Frideric Handel]], [[Jan Dismas Zelenka]], [[Heinrich Schutz]], [[Johann Kuhnau]], [[Marco Giuseppe Peranda]], and others. As a soloist he has recorded music of [[Dietrich Buxtehude]] and [[Francois Couperin]], among others. He and the Bach Collegium Japan have also recorded the [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]] of [[Ludwig van Beethoven]] in the arrangement by [[Wagner]] that replaces the orchestra with a solo piano, which is played on the recording by pianist [[Noriko Ogawa (pianist)|Noriko Ogawa]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Symphony-arranged-piano-Wagner/dp/B0000279GQ/ref=cm_wl_huc_item?pldnSite=1|title=Beethoven: Symphony No 9 arranged for piano by Wagner|date=November 2, 1998|via=Amazon}}</ref>. With his brother, the baroque cello virtuoso [[Hidemi Suzuki]], he has recorded chamber music by [[George Frideric Handel]] and others.

Suzuki is the founder of the early music department at the [[Tokyo University of the Arts]] and taught there until 2010.<ref>Booklet biography for Masaaki Suzuki, on the CD "Bach: Concertos for two harpsichords," BIS 2051 (2014)</ref> He is now Principal Guest Conductor of the [[Yale Schola Cantorum]] and Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting at [[Yale University]]<ref name="Yale" /> in a joint appointment between the [[Yale School of Music]] and [[Yale Institute of Sacred Music]], where he is Artist in Residence.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://ism.yale.edu/people/masaaki-suzuki|title=Masaaki Suzuki| publisher =Yale}}</ref> As a guest conductor, Suzuki has led the [[Academy of Ancient Music]], the [[New York Philharmonic]],<ref>{{cite news |first=Anthony |last=Tommasini|title=A Pair of Magnificats Star in a Tribute to Bach and His Fan Mendelssohn|newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 7, 2013 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic-begins-bach-variations-festival.html}}</ref> [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]], [[San Francisco Symphony]], [[St. Paul Chamber Orchestra]], [[Danish National Symphony]], [[Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin]], [[Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment]], [[Melbourne Symphony Orchestra]], [[Rotterdam Philharmonic]], [[Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart]], [[Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra]], [[Philharmonia Baroque]], [[Collegium Vocale Gent]], [[Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic]], [[Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra]] and [[Tonhalle Orchestra]] of Zurich.<ref name= "NYPhil" />

* 2008: [[Diapason d'Or]] (for his recording of Bach's [[Mass in B Minorminor]]).<ref>{{citationCite web needed|title=Bach, J S: Mass in B minor, BWV232 |url=https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7960314--bach-j-s-mass-in-b-minor-bwv232 |access-date=July2024-06-19 2018|website=Presto Music |language=en}}</ref>

* 2012: The [[Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize|Bach Prize]], awarded by the [[Royal Academy of Music]] and sponsored by the [[Ralph Kohn|Kohn Foundation]]<ref name="Mainz" /><ref name="Unknown">{{cite web|url= http://www.ram.ac.uk/news?nid=262 |title=Masaaki Suzuki awarded Bach Prize|date=January 20, 2012 |publisher=[[Royal Academy of Music]]|accessdateaccess-date=22 February 2012 |location=London}}</ref>

* 2012: [[Bach Medal]] from the City of [[Leipzig]] and its Bach Archiv<ref name="Yale" /><ref name= "Leipzig" /><ref>{{cite web |title = Bach Medal|url = http://www.bachfestleipzig.de/en/bach-medal | publisher = Bachfest Leipzig|accessdateaccess-date = 2015-08-08| work = Bach-Archiv Leipzig |url-status = dead |archiveurlarchive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181403/http://www.bachfestleipzig.de/en/bach-medal |archivedatearchive-date = 2015-09-23}}</ref>

| language = Germande

| accessdateaccess-date = 3 July 2018

| language = Germande

| accessdateaccess-date = 3 July 2018

| accessdateaccess-date = 3 July 2018

| access-date = 3 July 2018

| access-date = 3 July 2018

| accessdateaccess-date = 3 July 2018

* [http://www.signandsight.com/features/334.html ''The Meistersingers from Tokyo''] on his tour in Germany, by [[Wolfram Goertz]], signandsight.com

[[Category:Harpsichordists1954 births]]

[[Category:Japanese male conductors (music)]]

[[Category:PeopleMusicians from Kobe]]

[[Category:Male classical organists]]