ICHIRO SAITO
BIOGRAPHY
Ichiro Saito, conductor
Ichiro Saito was born in Fukui, Japan. He studied musicology and composition at Tokyo Gakugei University, and conducting at Tokyo University of the Arts. After graduation, he studied with Leopord Hager, Ervin Acel and Yuji Yuasa in Vienna on a scholarship from the Japanese government.
Returning to Japan in 2000, he served as the assistant conductor at the NHK Symphony Orchestra until March 2004. He also received instruction from great conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallish, Herbert Blomstedt and Yevgeny Svetlanov during this time.
Since his debut with the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra in 1997, he has appeared with other major Japanese orchestras such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Kansai Philharmonic, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, the Szeged Philharmonic in Hungary, the Moravia National Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, the Oradea National Philharmonic in Romania, the Slovaki Philharmonic, and the Pardubice Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra.
Saito collaborated with the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra as its Principal Conductor from 2009 to 2014. Since 2014 he has enjoyed positions as the Music Director of Kyoto Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra.
He was awarded the 9th Nagoya PEN CLUB Award in 2014 for his interpretation of Japanese composers’ works. He and Kyoto Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra were awarded the 15th Yoshio Sagawa Music Award in 2017 for their subscription concert in April 2016.