Legendary VSO conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama has died

Akiyama was adored by Vancouver musicians and audiences alike.

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Most good conductors are admired. Fewer are loved. But Kazuyoshi Akiyama was adored by Vancouver musicians and audiences, alike.

A longtime conductor and contributor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO), Akiyama died in a hospital in Japan on Jan. 26 following a fall in his home on New Year’s Day. He was 84.

At the time of his death, Akiyama was conductor laureate of the Tokyo, Vancouver, and Syracuse orchestras.

Born in Tokyo in 1941, Akiyama studied conducting with the renowned Hideo Saito, and made his professional debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1964. Within a few months, he was named the orchestra’s music director and permanent conductor, assuming the honorific title of conductor laureate in 2004.

Akiyama’s first North American position was assistant conductor of the Toronto Symphony for the 1968-69 season. In 1972, he became conductor and music director of the Vancouver Symphony, and in 1985, he took on the same role at the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

In 1995, Akiyama returned to Japan to become principal conductor and music adviser of the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra. In 1998, he took Canada’s National Youth Orchestra to Japan, and then on tour at home in 2000.

He was also the recipient of the Suntory Music Award and the Emperor’s Purple Ribbon Medal for his contributions to Japan’s musical culture, among many other music awards.

Undated archive photo of conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama.
Undated archive photo of conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama.Vancouver Sun

For Vancouver, Akiyama proved to be the right conductor at the right time.

Following the energizing but rather short tenure of Meredith Davies, he oversaw a major transition for the VSO. During his tenure, standards improved and ticket sales reached new heights. Akiyama also oversaw the orchestra’s departure from the acoustically unsatisfactory Queen Elizabeth Theatre for a newly refurbished Orpheum Theatre.

Akiyama showcased the VSO on two tours to Japan, as well as road trips to Canadian and American destinations. While he moved on to Syracuse in the mid-1980s, he stayed connected with the VSO, ultimately celebrating five decades of concerts with the ensemble in 2019.

The vital, exuberant Akiyama sound was easy to recognize: confident wind playing and enthusiastic brass were at the core of “his” VSO.

An adventurous programmer, he presented local premieres of many works by Canadian, Japanese, and international contemporary composers. He asked Vancouver’s Jean Coulthard to create her now-classic Canada Mosaic for performance by the VSO in Asia, and with characteristic generosity requested cameo solos in the score for all the orchestra’s principal players.

Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson performs with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. April 10, 1975.
Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson performs with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. April 10, 1975.Photo by Ian Lindsay /PNG

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