is a Japanese conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 who is currently in his seventh year as Artistic Director of Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica. Also, after five seasons as Music Director of Japan’s Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra, he recently assumed the title of Conductor Laureate.

Komatsu previously held the posts of Principal Conductor of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

The claims to be the oldest classical orchestra in Japan, having been founded in Nagoya in 1911. It moved to Tokyo in 1938 and has some 166 members as of 2005....

 and Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of Takefu International Music Festival, Music Director of Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony

Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony is a Canadian orchestra based in the twin cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario. Its home venue is Centre In The Square in Kitchener, Ontario. Music Directors and Principal Conductors have included Raffi Armenian , Chosei Komatsu , Martin Fischer-Dieskau and...

 and Canadian Chamber Ensemble, Principal Guest Conductor of Lviv State Opera and Ballet, Associate Conductor of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...

, and Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor of Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra located in Buffalo, New York. Its primary performing venue is Kleinhans Music Hall, which is a National Historic Landmark. Its regular concert season features gala concerts, classics programming of core repertoire, Pops...

.

He has conducted orchestras, opera and ballet on four continents, including Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kiev National Philharmonic Orchestra, Kiev National Opera, Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester

WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne

The WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne is a German orchestra based in Cologne. The orchestra was founded in 1947 by Allied occupation authorities after World War II, as the orchestra of Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunk . The orchestra later acquired the names of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and...

, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra

The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1948, is one of the oldest and most famous orchestras in South Korea. Its first foreign tour came on a 1965 trip to Japan, followed by performances in Southeast Asia in 1977, the United States in 1982, 1986 and 1996, a 1988 tour of Europe before the...

, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Compañía Lírica Nacional de Costa Rica, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela.

Chosei Komatsu has collaborated with numerous international solo artists, such as violinists Joshua Bell

Joshua Bell

Joshua David Bell is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.-Childhood:Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's father is the late Alan P...

, James Ehnes

James Ehnes

James Ehnes, CM is a Canadian concert violinist.The son of Alan Ehnes, trumpet professor at Brandon University and Barbara Ehnes, former director of the Brandon School of Dance, James Ehnes began his violin studies at the age of four...

, Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn is an American violinist.Hahn was born in Lexington, Virginia. Beginning her studies when she was three years old at Baltimore's Peabody Institute, she was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age ten, and in 1991, made her major orchestral debut with the...

, Cho-Liang Lin

Cho-Liang Lin

Cho-Liang Lin , born in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is a Taiwanese American violinist who is renowned for his appearances as a soloist with major orchestras. "Musical America" named him its "Instrumentalist of the Year" in 2000...

, Midori Goto

Midori Goto

is a Japanese American violinist. She made her debut at the age of 11 in a last-minute change of programming during a concert highlighting young performers by the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. When she was 21, she formed the philanthropic group Midori and Friends to help bring music to...

, Gil Shaham

Gil Shaham

-Biography:Gil Shaham was born in Urbana, Illinois, while his parents, Israeli scientists, were on an academic fellowship at the University of Illinois. His father Jacob was an astrophysicist, and his mother, Meira Diskin, was a cytogeneticist. His sister is the pianist Orli Shaham. He is a...

; cellist Jian Wang

Jian Wang (cellist)

Jian Wang began to study the cello with his father when he was four. While a student at the Shanghai Conservatoire, he was featured in the celebrated documentary film From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China...

; and pianists Leon Fleisher

Leon Fleisher

Leon Fleisher is an American pianist and conductor.-Early life and studies:Fleisher was born in San Francisco, where he started studying the piano at age four...

, Lang Lang

Lang Lang (pianist)

Lang Lang , born June 14, 1982, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, is a Chinese concert pianist, currently residing in New York, who has performed with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States and his native China. He is increasingly well known around the world for his concert performances,...

, Roger Wright

Roger Wright

Roger Robinson Wright III is an American classical concert pianist. He is also a Scrabble player who won the United States National Scrabble Championship in 2004.-Early life and musical training:...

, Jeffrey Kahane

Jeffrey Kahane

Jeffrey Alan Kahane is an American classical music pianist and conductor. He is music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.-Personal history:...

, Ikuyo Kamiya, Yu Kosuge, and Michie Koyama.

In 2005, Chosei Komatsu led Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica on tour in Japan, in celebration of the 70th Anniversary of diplomatic relations between those two countries. As part of the Japanese government’s official cultural outreach program, Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra was selected to tour China with Mtro. Komatsu in 2007.

Among the many recordings to Mtro. Komatsu’s credit are two CDs with Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, released in 2006 on the Sony Classical label. His 2004 recording of Akira Senju’s Piano Concerto "Shukumei", with Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Kentaro Haneda, remains the best-selling classical CD in the history of Japan. His gala concert with Tokyo Philharmonic, soprano Stefania Bonfadelli

Stefania Bonfadelli

Stefania Bonfadelli is an Italian operatic soprano.She began studying pianoforte at eight years of age and singing at fourteen in Verona, and later continued these studies in Paris and Vienna. Her operatic debut was with I puritani in 1997 at the Vienna State Opera...

 and baritone Renato Bruson

Renato Bruson

Renato Bruson is an Italian operatic baritone. Bruson is widely considered one of the most important Verdi baritones of the late 20th and early 21st century. He was born in Granze near Padua, Italy.-Biography and career:...

 was released on DVD in 2003. Mtro. Komatsu has also recorded for the Columbia, BMG-Victor, EMI and CBC labels, with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Chamber Ensemble, and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony

Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony is a Canadian orchestra based in the twin cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario. Its home venue is Centre In The Square in Kitchener, Ontario. Music Directors and Principal Conductors have included Raffi Armenian , Chosei Komatsu , Martin Fischer-Dieskau and...

.

A native of Japan, Chosei Komatsu earned a Bachelor of Literature degree in aesthetics from University of Tokyo

University of Tokyo

, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...

 and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from Eastman School of Music

Eastman School of Music

The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...

 in Rochester, New York. He was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany and the Aspen Music Festival and School

Aspen Music Festival and School

The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...

 Conducting Fellowship in the United States. His primary conducting teachers were David Zinman

David Zinman

David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...

, David Effron

David Effron

David Effron is an American conductor and educator. After earning a Bachelor of Music degree in piano from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music degree in piano from Indiana University, he worked as an assistant to Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Cologne Opera...

, Donald Neuen

Donald Neuen

Donald Neuen is an American choral conductor, composer, arranger, editor, and educator who currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Conducting and Director of Choral Activities at the University of California, Los Angeles...

, and Eiichi Ito, and he took further studies with Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.- Biography :Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times...

, Max Rudolf, and Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...

.

Chosei Komatsu currently lives in Georgia, USA, and in Tokyo, Japan.

Official Website: http://www.c-komatsu.com