Kazuki Yamada, currently Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, will also assume a new position as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2026.
Yamada has been chief with the CBSO since April 2023, and in January this year extended his contract through the 2028–29 season. But Yamada’s new position with the DSO will be closer to his current home in Berlin than his role in Birmingham.
“It fills me with great joy and deep gratitude that I have been appointed chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin,” Yamada commented. “A Japanese conductor taking a leading musical role in Berlin is a rarity – and is of great significance for me personally.”
A protégé of Seiji Ozawa, Yamada won the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors in 2009, which Ozawa had won 50 years prior. Yamada later conducted Ozawa’s Saito Kinen Orchestra.
Yamada has also been principal conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo since 2016, a role which he will continue until August 2026. Yamada’s forthcoming dates include debut appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker in June 2025, as well as return appearances at the BBC Proms and with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra in May 2026.
The appointment makes Yamada only the 8th chief conductor to lead the DSO since its foundation. Originally known as the RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester, its other principal conductors include Ferenc Fricsay, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly and Kent Nagano.
Yamada first guest-conducted the DSO only in April 2024, with further performances in September. As principal, he follows Robin Ticciati, chief conductor from 2017 until his stepping down in December 2024. The post has been vacant since that time.
The orchestra went without a chief conductor in the late 1970s, between the tenures of Maazel, who departed in 1975, and Chailly, who took up his position in 1982.
Clearly much in demand, Yamada was awarded the Conductor award at this year’s RPS Awards. Anselm Rose, chief executive of the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre Berlin, which runs the DSO, commented: “With Kazuki Yamada, we win one of the world’s most sought-after conductors.”
On paper, Yamada’s position in Birmingham will continue until 2029, but it remains to be seen how long the UK will be able to hold on to such a sought-after musician.
