Subscription Concert No.1052 A Series
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Venue Info
Jonathan NOTT, Conductor
Ayana TSUJI, Violin*
Naoko YOSHINO, Harp*
Jonathan NOTT (Conductor)
Jonathan Nott will become the new Music Director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain starting in the 2026/2027 season.
Jonathan Nott was a solo singer as a boy treble (Louis Frémaux and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), sang as a tenor at Cambridge University and studied opera singing at the Royal Northern College of Music. As Repetiteur at the London Opera Studio, he studied conducting with the English opera conductor David Parry, played the organ in Tosca, conducted the off-stage choir in Parsifal at Covent Garden (Bernard Haitink) and conducted the off-stage orchestra in Opera Rara’s recording of Donizetti L’Assedio di Calais. As a tenor, he sang with St Paul’s and Westminster Cathedral choirs.
His first appointment was as Repetiteur at the Frankfurt Opera under Garry Bertini, who also gave him his first conducting opportunity: La Finta Giardiniera and Heinz Holliger’s Beckett Trilogy, the success of which led to performances of The Nose and Mahagonny.
As First Kapellmeister of the Wiesbaden Opera, he conducted all genres from Cimarosa, through Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Gounod, Puccini, Shostakovich, Kurt Weill, Maxwell Davis, Henze, a new ballet production of Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet, to Sondheim and The Little Shop of Horrors, and he conducted Wagner’s Ring (Siegfried Jerusalem) and Elektra (Eva Marton) at the Maifestspiele.
Whilst in Frankfurt he developed an interest in conducting contemporary music: Ligeti (first Hungarian production of Le Grand Macabre, Budapest Opera), Boulez (Ballet Béjart), Stockhausen, Lachenmann, Hosokawa, Eötvös, Gubaidulina, as well as many composers of the younger generation.
Jonathan Nott has held positions as Musical Director of the Lucerne Opera, Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Musical Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He debuted with the SWR at the Baden Baden Festival with Elektra (Ruth Berghaus, Hildegard Behrens), and as Musical Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande initiated new productions of Rossini Barbieri, Debussy Pelléas, Parsifal, and Rosenkavalier at the Grand Theatre de Genève. He gave concert performances of Tristan at the Edinburgh Festival and Falstaff and the Ring at the Lucerne Festival with the Bamberg Symphony (Chief Conductor from 2000-2016) and has just completed a new production of the Ring at the Theater Basel.
During his 12 years as Musical Director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, he and Sir Thomas Allen directed a series of opera concert performances: the Mozart da Ponte trilogy, Salome (Asmik Grigorian), Elektra (Christine Goerke); “Best Concert in Japan 2023-24“ by "Ongaku no Tomo" magazine), Rosenkavalier and Schönberg’s Gurrelieder.
His recent projects include the Adel Abdessemed production of Messiaen Saint-François d’Assise in Geneva, Mahler 7 with the New Japan Philharmonic, two concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performing works by Mazzoli, Eötvös and Ives and a tour of Germany with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (Principal Conductor from 2014-2024).
After the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande New Year Opera Gala (Juliana Grigoryan), he started 2025 conducting the SWR (Zemlinsky) followed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln (Boulez), Dresdner Philharmonie (Pelléas and Le Sacre du Printemps), a complete “Die Fledermaus” at the Tokyo Spring Festival, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich (Messiaen and Mahler) and is currently with the OSR on a tour of Asia.
Jonathan Nott is a Reiki-master: “I’ve come to realise over the years that truly great conducting is simply the formation and re-formation of inexorable human energy constantly in flow created by the players/singers and transmitted to and reflected by the listener using that most fundamental and wondrous form of non-verbal communication we call “music”. Music heals, that is its and our one-and-only purpose.”
Jonathan Nott has an extensive catalogue of recordings, including the complete orchestral works of Ligeti with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Jonas Kaufmann. His recordings with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra include works by Janacek, Bruckner, Wagner (Klaus Florian Vogt), as well as the complete symphonic works by Schubert and Mahler, the latter of which received the Internationaler Schallplattenpreis Toblacher Komponierhäuschen 2009 (Mahler 9), MIDEM best classical recording 2010 (Mahler 9), Classica France Feb 2022 blind listening best Mahler 5 on record.
His first recording with the OSR featured works by Richard Strauss, Debussy and Ligeti (2018 Pentatone), followed by a recording on the theme of Pelléas et Mélisande with works by Debussy and Schönberg which received a "Choc" from Classica and the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” (the German Record Critics Prize). A third CD (2022) featured pianist Francesco Piemontesi with works by Ravel, Schönberg and Messiaen.
The Covid years gave rise to innovation with the OSR: a streamed broadcast of Beethoven 9 “in-the-round”, a series of live, daily, on-line rehearsals: how conducting “works”, followed by an introduction to Mahler 9 alongside a performance of the full symphony, produced by Actua films, all from the Victoria Hall, Geneva. In 2025 the first studio recording of all four orchestral works by Dieter Ammann (Schweizer Fonogramm), as well as a live performance of the Eroica symphony and William Tell overture will appear on the OSR’s “Virtual Hall” platform.
His discography of recordings with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, which include Mahler, Bruckner (1, 2, 5, 7 and 9), and Tchaikovsky (2, 3, 5 and 6) will be augmented by the release of both Beethoven (2 and 5) and Brahms (2) (EXTON/OCTAVIA) this month.
photo ©Guillaume Megevand
Jonathan Nott was a solo singer as a boy treble (Louis Frémaux and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), sang as a tenor at Cambridge University and studied opera singing at the Royal Northern College of Music. As Repetiteur at the London Opera Studio, he studied conducting with the English opera conductor David Parry, played the organ in Tosca, conducted the off-stage choir in Parsifal at Covent Garden (Bernard Haitink) and conducted the off-stage orchestra in Opera Rara’s recording of Donizetti L’Assedio di Calais. As a tenor, he sang with St Paul’s and Westminster Cathedral choirs.
His first appointment was as Repetiteur at the Frankfurt Opera under Garry Bertini, who also gave him his first conducting opportunity: La Finta Giardiniera and Heinz Holliger’s Beckett Trilogy, the success of which led to performances of The Nose and Mahagonny.
As First Kapellmeister of the Wiesbaden Opera, he conducted all genres from Cimarosa, through Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Gounod, Puccini, Shostakovich, Kurt Weill, Maxwell Davis, Henze, a new ballet production of Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet, to Sondheim and The Little Shop of Horrors, and he conducted Wagner’s Ring (Siegfried Jerusalem) and Elektra (Eva Marton) at the Maifestspiele.
Whilst in Frankfurt he developed an interest in conducting contemporary music: Ligeti (first Hungarian production of Le Grand Macabre, Budapest Opera), Boulez (Ballet Béjart), Stockhausen, Lachenmann, Hosokawa, Eötvös, Gubaidulina, as well as many composers of the younger generation.
Jonathan Nott has held positions as Musical Director of the Lucerne Opera, Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Musical Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He debuted with the SWR at the Baden Baden Festival with Elektra (Ruth Berghaus, Hildegard Behrens), and as Musical Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande initiated new productions of Rossini Barbieri, Debussy Pelléas, Parsifal, and Rosenkavalier at the Grand Theatre de Genève. He gave concert performances of Tristan at the Edinburgh Festival and Falstaff and the Ring at the Lucerne Festival with the Bamberg Symphony (Chief Conductor from 2000-2016) and has just completed a new production of the Ring at the Theater Basel.
During his 12 years as Musical Director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, he and Sir Thomas Allen directed a series of opera concert performances: the Mozart da Ponte trilogy, Salome (Asmik Grigorian), Elektra (Christine Goerke); “Best Concert in Japan 2023-24“ by "Ongaku no Tomo" magazine), Rosenkavalier and Schönberg’s Gurrelieder.
His recent projects include the Adel Abdessemed production of Messiaen Saint-François d’Assise in Geneva, Mahler 7 with the New Japan Philharmonic, two concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performing works by Mazzoli, Eötvös and Ives and a tour of Germany with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (Principal Conductor from 2014-2024).
After the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande New Year Opera Gala (Juliana Grigoryan), he started 2025 conducting the SWR (Zemlinsky) followed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln (Boulez), Dresdner Philharmonie (Pelléas and Le Sacre du Printemps), a complete “Die Fledermaus” at the Tokyo Spring Festival, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich (Messiaen and Mahler) and is currently with the OSR on a tour of Asia.
Jonathan Nott is a Reiki-master: “I’ve come to realise over the years that truly great conducting is simply the formation and re-formation of inexorable human energy constantly in flow created by the players/singers and transmitted to and reflected by the listener using that most fundamental and wondrous form of non-verbal communication we call “music”. Music heals, that is its and our one-and-only purpose.”
Jonathan Nott has an extensive catalogue of recordings, including the complete orchestral works of Ligeti with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Jonas Kaufmann. His recordings with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra include works by Janacek, Bruckner, Wagner (Klaus Florian Vogt), as well as the complete symphonic works by Schubert and Mahler, the latter of which received the Internationaler Schallplattenpreis Toblacher Komponierhäuschen 2009 (Mahler 9), MIDEM best classical recording 2010 (Mahler 9), Classica France Feb 2022 blind listening best Mahler 5 on record.
His first recording with the OSR featured works by Richard Strauss, Debussy and Ligeti (2018 Pentatone), followed by a recording on the theme of Pelléas et Mélisande with works by Debussy and Schönberg which received a "Choc" from Classica and the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” (the German Record Critics Prize). A third CD (2022) featured pianist Francesco Piemontesi with works by Ravel, Schönberg and Messiaen.
The Covid years gave rise to innovation with the OSR: a streamed broadcast of Beethoven 9 “in-the-round”, a series of live, daily, on-line rehearsals: how conducting “works”, followed by an introduction to Mahler 9 alongside a performance of the full symphony, produced by Actua films, all from the Victoria Hall, Geneva. In 2025 the first studio recording of all four orchestral works by Dieter Ammann (Schweizer Fonogramm), as well as a live performance of the Eroica symphony and William Tell overture will appear on the OSR’s “Virtual Hall” platform.
His discography of recordings with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, which include Mahler, Bruckner (1, 2, 5, 7 and 9), and Tchaikovsky (2, 3, 5 and 6) will be augmented by the release of both Beethoven (2 and 5) and Brahms (2) (EXTON/OCTAVIA) this month.
photo ©Guillaume Megevand
Ayana TSUJI (Violin)
Ayana Tsuji is one of the most promising young violinists of Japan. Born in Gifu in 1997, she started the violin at age 3. She was awarded First Prize at the 2016 Montreal International Competition, together with 5 other prizes. She has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphoney Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra. Ayana graduated from Tokyo College of Music. She studied with Kenji Kobayashi, Toshiko Yaguchi, Kimiko Nakazawa, Machie Oguri, Koichiro Harada and Régis Pasquier. In 2018, she received the 28th Idemitsu Music Award. Ayana plays a Joannes Baptista Guadagnini 1748, on loan from the Yellow Angel NPO Corporation.
©Makoto Kamiya
©Makoto Kamiya
YOSHINO Naoko (Harp)
Naoko Yoshino’s solo engagements with the world’s top orchestras have included the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Boulez, Herbert Blomstedt, and Seiji Ozawa.
Naoko Yoshino has been invited to numerous prestigious music festivals, such as the Lucerne, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Marlboro, and Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festivals. Through chamber music, she has worked closely with such renowned musicians as violinist Gidon Kremer, flutists Aurèle Nicolet, Emmanuel Pahud, Jacques Zoon, and horn player Radek Baborák.
As an advocate of new repertoire for the harp, Naoko Yoshino has premiered many works, including Toru Takemitsu’s “And then I knew ‘twas Wind” and Toshio Hosokawa’s Harp Concerto “Re-turning”. Recordings to date include releases from the Teldec, Philips, and Sony Classical labels, and in 2016, she started a new recording project with her own private label “grazioso”.
Naoko Yoshino began to study harp at the age of six with Susann McDonald. She started her worldwide career in 1985, after winning first prize at the Ninth International Harp Contest in Israel.
http://www.naokoyoshino.com/
Naoko Yoshino has been invited to numerous prestigious music festivals, such as the Lucerne, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Marlboro, and Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festivals. Through chamber music, she has worked closely with such renowned musicians as violinist Gidon Kremer, flutists Aurèle Nicolet, Emmanuel Pahud, Jacques Zoon, and horn player Radek Baborák.
As an advocate of new repertoire for the harp, Naoko Yoshino has premiered many works, including Toru Takemitsu’s “And then I knew ‘twas Wind” and Toshio Hosokawa’s Harp Concerto “Re-turning”. Recordings to date include releases from the Teldec, Philips, and Sony Classical labels, and in 2016, she started a new recording project with her own private label “grazioso”.
Naoko Yoshino began to study harp at the age of six with Susann McDonald. She started her worldwide career in 1985, after winning first prize at the Ninth International Harp Contest in Israel.
http://www.naokoyoshino.com/
