Masato Suzuki

鈴木優人

Masato Suzuki is a conductor, harpsichordist, organist, pianist and composer. He is Principal Conductor of Bach Collegium Japan, Principal Guest Conductor of Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director of Ensemble Genesis. In January 2025 he conducted his own completed and edited version of Mozart’s Requiem with BCJ on a seven-city European tour. In November that year he made his debut with the Orchestre de Paris, conducting and playing harpsichord in programmes combining Bach and Berio.

He has also conducted Symphoniker Hamburg, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Camerata Salzburg, the Academy of Ancient Music and the Netherlands Bach Society. In Japan, he has conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra (YNSO) and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, alongside guest appearances with orchestras throughout the country.

His opera work with BCJ includes Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Handel’s Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare. Rinaldo received the Yoshio Sagawa Music Award. He made his conducting debut at the New National Theatre Tokyo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in 2022. Bunkamura’s Mozart series has brought collaborations with Hiroshi Senju for The Magic Flute, Hiroshi Sugimoto for Don Giovanni, and Kengo Kuma for The Marriage of Figaro.

His recordings include Bach’s harpsichord concertos with BCJ and both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier for BIS, as well as Bach sonatas with violist Antoine Tamestit for harmonia mundi. He also works on composition, arrangement and the completion of unfinished scores.

Suzuki studied at Tokyo University of the Arts and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. His awards include the Hotel Okura Music Award, the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award, the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists and the Akio Watanabe Music Foundation Award. He is Executive Producer of the Chofu International Music Festival.