Yoichi Sugiyama (born in 1969 in Tokyo) has studied orchestral conducting with Emilio Pomàrico and Morihiro Okabe as well as composition with Franco Donatoni, Sandro Gorli and Akira Miyoshi.
He is active both as a conductor and as a composer in Europe and Japan.
Since he conducted Luigi Nono’s opera Prometeo with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra in 2000, he’s been involved in various important international festivals such as Wien Modern, Festival d’Automne (Paris), Milano Musica, Verdi Festival (Parma), Settembre Musica and Suntory Summer Festival.
Sugiyama has collaborated with various prestigious orchestras and ensembles, including Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Arena di Verona, New Japan Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philarmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, Orchestra Friuli Venezia Giulia, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Izumi Sinfonietta, Orchestra Regionale Marchigiana, Orchestra Sinfonica della Repubblica di San Marino, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, Klangforum Wien, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, Remix Ensemble, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Alter Ego, Collegium Novum Zürich, Icarus Ensemble, Ensemble dell’Accademia della Scala and mdi ensemble.
Yoichi Sugiyama’s pieces can be heard at various international festivals such as Biennale di Venezia 2010 (Barcaruola II for ensemble), 2000 (Barcaruola I for viola and percussion, commissioned by Biennale di Venezia); Milano Musica (Ruscello nel lago, commissioned by Milano Musica 2009), Beyond the Frontier(commissioned by Milano Musica 2003); Tiroler Festspiele Erl 2000 (Intermezzo III for piano, commissioned by Tiroler Festspiele Erl), Angelica Festival (Bologna), REC Festival d’Autunno, Takefu International Music Festival. His Divertimento I for ensemble (1997) has been published at Casa Ricordi (Milan). In 2001 Sugiyama wrote Divertimento II for Bruno Canino’s piano duo. The performances are broadcast regularly on NHK-FM, RAI and ORF among others.
In 2015, Sugiyama was invited as theme composer from Music from Japan festival in NYC.
In 2014 Sugiyama received the Keizo Saji Prize from the Suntory Foundation for Arts with Last Interview from Africa (dedicated to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Japanese disaster in 2011).
In 1994, while undertaking a summer course with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Chigiana, Sugiyama won the Italian Composer’s Society Award (Premio SIAE). He also attended master courses and workshops by Luis de Pablo (Milan, 1996), György Ligeti (Novara, 1996), Adriano Guarnieri (Milan, 1996) and the London Sinfonietta (Tokyo, 1994). Sugiyama was an assistant teacher in Franco Donatoni’s composition course held in Tokyo (1998) and Giacomo Manzoni’s composition course in Tokyo (1999).
In 1995, Sugiyama obtained a scholarship for composition from the Italian Government. He has been residing in Milan ever since and he is currently teaching at Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano “Claudio Abbado”.
