The Japanese Keitaro Harada will conduct the premiere of “Carmen” on 3 November at the Sofia Opera
The conductor Keitaro Harada will conduct the premiere of the opera “Carmen” on 3 November at the Sofia Opera and Ballet. He is highly appreciated for his professionalism, his artistic abilities and passion for musical excellence.
A native of Tokyo, Japan, Harada is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Mercer University. He has also studied under Christoph von Dohnányi, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Oliver Knussen, Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Ponkin, Adrian Gnam and Stefan Asbury. Harada champions creative programming, development of the orchestra as a part of a community’s cultural fabric, advancement of each musician he encounters, and responsibility as an artistic and civic leader. He is a three-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award (2014, 2015, 2016). Harada won the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood Music Festival. The Japanese is student of Lorin Maazel and Fabio Luisi.
In 2013, Harada was selected by the League of American Orchestras as one of only six conductors for the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, a prominent showcase that occurs biennially in an effort to promote gifted, emerging conductors to orchestra industry leaders. Still in 2012, Harada was a semi-finalist at the 9th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Poland. In 2011, Harada was one of ten semi-finalists invited by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony to participate in the First Chicago Symphony Orchestra Solti International Conducting Competition and he made his professional opera conducting debut with North Carolina Opera.
Currently in his second season as Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops, Harada regularly assists Music Director Louis Langrée and conducts the CSO, POPS, and World Piano Competition, and assisted James Conlon for the 2016 May Festival. Keitaro also holds the position of Associate Conductor of the Arizona Opera.
Харада започва лятото на 2016 година с Тихоокеанския музикален фестивал по покана на Валери Гергиев. Дирижирайки пред публика от близо 5000 души. Прави диригентския си дебют с Токийския симфоничен оркестър и Токийския филхармоничен оркестър в Япония и с Бойската филхармония, Симфоничния оркестър на Западна Вирджиния, Симфоничния оркестър на Саут Бенд и Луизианския филхармоничен оркестър в САЩ.
Harada began the summer of 2016 with the Pacific Music Festival by invitation of Valery Gergiev, performing to an audience of nearly 5000. He makes his conducting debut with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan and with Boise Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in the United States.
Last season, Harada was invited to the prestigious Mahler Competition in Germany and made his conducting debut in Japan with the New Japan Philharmonic in a sold out performance as well as his debut with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He led performances of Carmen for Arizona Opera and conducted concerts with Tucson Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Sierra Vista Symphony, and Orquesta Filarmónica de Sonora. He held the position of Associate Conductor for Richmond Symphony from autumn of 2014 to spring of 2016.
He leads the 2018 Japan tour of Bulgaria Sofia Opera’s production of Bizet’s Carmen.