Kazushi Ono

• Conductor

Biography

In addition to these tenures, Kazushi Ono has been guest conductor with some of the world’s leading international orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, City of Birmingham Symphony, London Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, and Academia Santa Cecilia. Together with radio orchestras such as Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Vienna Radio Symphony, Danish and Finnish Radio he has also conducted numerous German radio orchestras including Hamburg, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Cologne as well as the BBC Symphony and BBC National Orchestra of Wales - with whom he made his BBC Proms debut in 2006.
Kazushi Ono has conducted almost all the Wagner operas, most notably the complete Ring cycle at the Karlsruhe Opera during his tenure there from 1996 – 2002 as well as several operatic world premières including Luca Francesconi’s Ballata, Toshio Hosokawa’s Hanjo and Philippe Boesmans’ Julie. He will return to the Met Opera this season following his successful debut there with Aida in 2007. His recent guest opera appearances include Elektra at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Verdi’s Macbeth at La Scala, Hänsel and Gretel at Glyndebourne and a new production of Szymanowski’s King Roger at the Opéra de Paris.
Kazushi Ono also has a strong affection for the theatre and works not only with established opera directors such as Luc Bondy, Peter Stein, Laurent Pelly and David McVicar but has also enjoyed collaborations with artists outside the traditional opera field such as the visual artist Jan Fabre, choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmerker and film director Francois Girard.
His varied catalogue of CD recordings demonstrates his wide repertoire, ranging from Chin (Deutsche Grammophon), Gubaidulina, Britten, Turnage and Rihm to Shostakovich, Mahler, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky. Other recent recordings include a 2009 Decca DVD of the acclaimed production of Humperdinck’s Hänsel and Gretel filmed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Glyndebourne as well as releases from the Opus Arte label featuring productions of Aida and The Rake’s Progress, both with La Monnaie, Brussels.