Symphony

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

02.03.26 - 22.03.26

about the tour.

Under the direction of Kazuki Yamada and accompanied by the winner of the Frédéric Chopin International Piano Competition 2021, Bruce Liu, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra embarks tour through Europe im March 2026.


Werk: tbc

Peter I. Tschaikowsky: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 b-Moll op. 23

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Werk: tbc

 

 

Your contact persons:

Cornelia Schmid

Managing Director

+49 511 36607-73

cornelia.schmid@kdschmid.de

Joric Brandon Pretzel

Director

+49 511 36607-33

joric.pretzel@kdschmid.de

An Orchestra full of experience.

Biography – about the orchestra.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is an internationally celebrated symphony orchestra, at home in Birmingham. A family of 90 incredible musicians, led by Chief Conductor and Artistic Kazuki Yamada, proud to make exciting musical experiences that matter to the people of Birmingham, the West Midlands and beyond.

Resident at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, the orchestra performs over 150 concerts each year in Birmingham, the UK and around the world, with music that ranges from classics to contemporary, soundtracks to symphonic, and everything in between. With a far-reaching community and education programme, alongside a family of choruses and ensembles, it is involved in every aspect of music-making in the Midlands – and has been for more than 100 years.

This longstanding tradition started with the orchestra’s very first symphonic concert in 1920 – conducted by Sir Edward Elgar. Ever since then, through war, recessions, social change and civic renewal, the CBSO has been proudly ‘Birmingham’s orchestra’. Under principal conductors including Adrian Boult, George Weldon, Andrzej Panufnik and Louis Frémaux, the CBSO won an artistic reputation that spread far beyond the Midlands. But it was when it discovered the young British conductor Simon Rattle in 1980 that the CBSO became internationally famous – and showed how the arts can help give a new sense of direction to a whole city.


Rattle’s successors Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons helped cement that global reputation and continued to build on the CBSO’s tradition of flying the flag for Birmingham. And under the dynamic leadership of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, the CBSO continued to do what it does best – playing great music for the people of Birmingham, the Midlands, and beyond.

In April 2023, Japanese conductor Kazuki Yamada took up the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor, and his baton the orchestra continues to celebrate the joy of music and of Birmingham through creating unmissable and unforgettable musical experiences for all.

SEASON 2023/2024

Dirigent/-in

Kazuki Yamada

Kazuki Yamada © Zuzanna Specjal

ARTISTIC and music DIRECTOR ORCHESTRE PHILHARMONIQUE DE MONTE-CARLO, 
Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor CITY OF BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, 
PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR YOMIurI NIPPON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, 
PERMANENT CONDUCTOR JAPAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA,
MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN THE PHILHARMONIC CHORUS OF TOKYO, 
MUSIC DIRECTOR YOKOHAMA SINFONIETTA

Kazuki Yamada is Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), a role he commenced in Spring 2023. Alongside his commitments in Birmingham, Yamada is also Artistic and Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (OPMC). Yamada has forged a link between Monaco and Birmingham having conducted collaborative performances with CBSO Chorus of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in both cities in 2019 and Orff’s Carmina Burana in 2023. CBSO Chorus open the current season with Yamada in both Birmingham and in Monaco with performances of Verdi Requiem and Mahler Symphony No 2 respectively.

Time spent under the close supervision of Seiji Ozawa served to underline the importance of what Kazuki Yamada calls his “Japanese feeling” for classical music. Born in 1979 in Kanagawa, Japan, he continues to work and perform in Japan every season with NHK Symphony Orchestra and in his position as Principal Guest Conductor with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. Shortly after assuming his position in Birmingham, Yamada gave a series of concerts on tour around Japan with the CBSO in summer 2023 and will take OPMC on tour to Japan in 2024.


Yamada’s passionate and collaborative approach to conducting means he commands a busy international diary of concerts, opera and choral conducting. The current season begins with his return to the BBC Proms with CBSO in summer 2023, closely followed by his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Festival. He takes the CBSO on tour to Germany and Switzerland in autumn 2023 followed by further concerts around Europe in spring 2024. He continues regular guesting commitments with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Orchestre National de France. He makes debut appearances with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Oslo Philharmonic, Orquesta Nacionales de España and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Yamada performs with soloists such as Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes, Seong-Jin Cho, Isabelle Faust, Martin Helmchen, Nobuko Imai, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Alexander Kantorow, Evgeny Kissin, Maria João Pires, Baiba Skride, Fazıl Say, Arabella Steinbacher, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Krystian Zimerman and Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Strongly committed to his role as an educator, Yamada appears annually as a guest artist at the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland and is strongly committed to the outreach programme at CBSO. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international concert halls reaffirmed his belief that -– in his words – ‘The audience is always involved in making the music. As a conductor, I need an audience there as much as the musicians’. Yamada studied music at the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he discovered a love both for Mozart and the Russian romantic repertory. He first achieved international attention upon receiving first prize in the 51st Besançon International Competition for young conductors in 2009. After living in Japan for most of his life, he now resides in Berlin.

SEASON 2023/2024

Solist/-in

Bruce Liu, Piano

Bruce Liu © Yanzhang

Bruce Liu was brought to the world’s attention in 2021, when he won the First Prize at the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Following his competition’s success, he immediately embarks on a world tour, appearing at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, BOZAR Brussels, Tokyo Opera City, Sala São Paulo, Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, U.S tour with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Past highlights include performance with ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as North-America tour with the China NCPA Orchestra.


His upcoming highlights include debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, European tour with Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker at Musikverein, festival appearances at la Roque d’Anthéron, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Rheingau, Edinburgh, Chopin and his Europe, Duszniki, and Gstaad Menuhin.

An exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon, his first album featuring the winning performances from the Chopin Competition won a Fryderyk Award and received international acclaim including both the Critics’ choice and Editor’s choice from the Gramophone Magazine, as well as being included in its list of Best classical albums from 2021.

"What we all have in common is our difference", the young pianist likes to say. Born in Paris to Chinese parents, Bruce Liu grew up in Montreal. His life has been steeped in cultural diversity, which has shaped his differences in attitude, personality and character. He draws on various sources of inspiration for his art: European refinement, Chinese long tradition, North American dynamism and openness.

Following his artist path with optimism and a smile, his teachers include Richard Raymond and Dang Thai Son.

SEASON 2022/2023 - THIS BIOGRAPHY IS AVAILABLE BY COURTESY OF LIU KOTOW INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND PROMOTION.

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Silke Musfeldt

Marketing Manager

+49 511 36607-42

silke.musfeldt@kdschmid.de