conductor

Hiroshi Kodama was born in Tokyo in 1952, and graduated both from Department of Compositional Theories and from Department of Conducting, at TOHO Gakuen school of music. He was trained by eminent musician-teachers, including Hideo Saito and Seiji Ozawa.

Kodama moved to Europe in 1975 and worked under Otmar Suitner, the General Music Director at the Berlin State Opera, Unter den Linden. After his further experiences in municipal opera houses in Gelsenkirchen, Würzburg and Münster, he assumed the position of First Conductor at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf (1989-96). From 1991, he also became the Principal Conductor of the South Westphalian Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1996 to 2001, he was the General Music Director at the Coburg State Opera Company of Bavaria.

Endorsed by more than 26 years of experience in German opera houses, Kodama possesses a wide variety of repertoire, and stands out in conducting works by Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and Richard Strauss.

In the concert arena, Kodama is active in various genres centered on German romantic works, as well as directing premier performances of contemporary pieces by German composers like Genzmar.

His debut in Japan as an opera maestro was in July 2000, conducting Wagner’s “Der fliegende Holländer (The flying Dutchman)”. His subsequent appearances in such productions as “Salome”, “Ariadne auf Naxos” at the New National Theater, Tokyo, “La Traviata” at the Aichi Culture Center, Nagoya, ”Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)” at Hokkaido Nikikai, and “L’elisir d’amore” at Kansai Nikikai, have always gained high acclaims with his superb conducting skills and with his artistic contents.

For his debut in Japan as a concert director, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra commissioned Kodama a condensed highlights from Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Nibelung’s Ring)“ for its Tokyo Opera City Series.

Kodama took batons in Osaka Symphony Orchestra’s (Former The Orchestra Osaka Symphoniker’s) subscription concerts in three consecutive seasons from 2005. His appearance in this orchestra’s 120th subscription concert in September 2006, where he conducted Bruckner’s 5th symphony, was highly acclaimed and was awarded “Music Critic Club Award 2007”. He currently resides in Munich, Germany,

Kodama assumed the position of Music Director & Principal Conductor of the Osaka Symphony Orchestra from April 2008.

http://www.amadok.net/index.html