Tsugio Maeda

At present he is permanent conductor of the New Tokyo Chamber Orchestra and Tokyo Ladies' Singers, principal guest conductor and honorary music director of the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina, Slovakia and principal guest conductor of China Broadcasting Choir.
In Japan he is active with many concerts with orchestras and choirs and his concerts have been often broadcasted by NHK. He also recorded many CDs with his choir and orchestra. Besides these domestic concerts, since 1983 he has conducted frequently outside Japan mainly in Austria, Slovakia and also in Asian countries. Since 1989, he conducts very often in the Musikverein during Vienna Festivals (Wiener Festwochen) in 1990, 92,’94,’98 2000, 2002,2004 , 2006 and 2008), Vienna Haydn Festivals in 1991, ’95 and ‘96, in both cases as first Japanese conductor in these festivals and also Spring Festivals in 1993, ’97, ’99, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009)
In January 1990, he began to work with the State Chamber Orchestra Žilina (now called Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina), and since January 1992, he has been a principal guest conductor and from October 1996 a Honorary Music Director of this orchestra, with which he again appeared in Vienna Musikverein.
He had been in good contact with the famous Austrian composer Prof. Gottfried von Einem. In October 1996 Mr. Maeda introduced the last orchestral piece of Gottfried von Einem the "Slovak Suite". He made the première of this piece in the Viennese Musikverein and also in Bratislava Music Festival with the State Chamber Orchestra Žilina. In these concerts Mr. Maeda also performed the "Czech Suite" written by A. Dvořák.
He has been actively working for the development of the musical exchange with the Asian countries. He did many concerts with his choir and orchestra from Japan in Korea (Seoul). In Beijing, China he performed with the China Broadcasting Choir and China Broadcasting Orchestra. Especially appreciated was there his first performance of I Sang Yun’s last orchestra piece “Engel in Flammen” . It got a very good reputation as the realization of the composer’s long cherished dream of performance of this piece in his native countries, which he himself could not carry out.
Tsugio Maeda has also worked with the State Philharmonic Orchestra Košice and he had with this orchestra a successful concert in October, 2001 in Kosice, when he did the world première of a Japanese composer Akira Nishimura’s orchestral piece, “East Asian Fantasy”.
In addition to his training in Japan, Tsugio Maeda studied conducting with Prof. Gunter Lehmann of the Vienna State opera.