Shizuo Z Kuwahara

Kuwahara received Second Prize at the 2021 Ionel Perlea International Conducting Competition in Romania. The award brought performance engagements, including appearances with Opera Brașov and the Sibiu State Philharmonic.

Following his 2018 debut conducting Verdi’s La traviata, Kuwahara was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre in 2019. His work there has encompassed opera, orchestral concerts, and ballet, with repertoire including Tosca, Eugene Onegin, Macbeth, and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. This association is temporarily suspended.

In July 2016, Kuwahara was appointed Tourism Ambassador for Yokkaichi, the Japanese city where he grew up. The city appoints ambassadors with ties to Yokkaichi to share its appeal through their public activities and connections in Japan and abroad.

Kuwahara served as Music Director of the Augusta Symphony in Georgia, USA, from 2009 to 2016. This seven-year appointment represents a sustained period of orchestral leadership in his career, alongside his international guest-conducting work.

Kuwahara won Third Prize at the 2009 Malko International Conducting Competition. Recordings of his final-round performances with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra include Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 and Nielsen’s Pan and Syrinx.

Kuwahara won First Prize at the 2008 Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition in Frankfurt, following Second Prize in 2006. The award marked an important step in his international career and led to invitations from European orchestras.

The documentary Conduct! Every Move Counts, directed by Götz Schauder, follows five young conductors competing in the Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition.