Yoshinao Kihara, the principal conductor of The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo (TOUKON), began studying conducting under Seiji Ozawa at age 16 when he won a competitive scholarship to attend Rohm Music Foundation’s Music Seminar, for which the maestro served as an advisor.
In 2006, upon graduating from high school, he left Japan for Europe to study orchestral conducting at the Berlin University of Arts in Germany. He then received his master’s degree in orchestral/choral conducting and korrepetition (coaching) from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and, earning the institute’s highest academic honor, the Wurdigungspreis award. Kihara has garnered many awards and honors, including a scholarship from the Rohm Music Foundation, Honjo International Scholarship Foundation and an overseas fellowship that the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs’s appointment provides for “emerging artists.”
His 2014 win of the Opera Award of the Gotoh Memorial Cultural Foundation and his first ranking in the 4th Tokyo Cantat Competition for Young Choral Conductor cemented his reputation as an up-and-comer. In 2016, Vienna’s Musikverein (Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien) -- a respected institution for which Herbert von Karajan long served as artistic director -- selected Kihara for its Sumida Peace Prayer Concert 2016 in Japan.
Kihara had already shared global stages with a number of reputable symphonies and choral and opera companies. In recent years, he has conducted the Kanagawa Kenmin Hall 50th Anniversary Opera Series Vol.1, Robert Wilson/Philip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach" (directed by Shintaro Hirahara), and was an invited lecturer at the New National Theatre Opera Studio Tokyo (NNTT), conducted "Scenes Recital 2023"(directed by David Edwards). His opera conduction won the 31st Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation Musical Award and a Music Pen Club Award (Contemporary Music Category) in 2023.
Kihara also teaches at Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo, Toho Gakuen College Music Department and Tokyo Nikikai Opera Foundation.