Artists
Kazuyoshi Akiyama (Conductor)
Born in 1941, Kazuyoshi Akiyama studied conducting under Hideo Saito at the Toho Gakuen School of Music.
Akiyama has held prestigious posts such as Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra (1973-1978) and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (1972-1985). During this time, Akiyama’s reputation spread to Europe and throughout North America, where he has been invited to conduct the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and many others.
He is the recipient of numerous highly prestigious honors in Japan including the Person of Cultural Merit (2014) for his outstanding cultural contributions.
Akiyama currently holds the title of Conductor Laureate at the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, as well as other positions with several Japanese orchestras.
He has also been acting as Permanent Conductor and Music Director of the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra since 1998.
In 2014, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his conducting career.
Charles Richard-Hamelin (Piano)
Silver medalist and laureate of the Krystian Zimerman award of the best sonata at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, Charles Richard-Hamelin is standing out as one of the most important pianists of his generation. He also won the second prize at the Montreal International Musical Competition and the third prize and special award for the best performance of a Beethoven sonata at the Seoul International Music Competition in South Korea. In April 2015, he was awarded the prestigious Career Development Award offered by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto.
He has appeared in various prestigious festivals including the Prague Spring Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, “Chopin and his Europe” Festival in Warsaw and the Lanaudière Festival in Canada. As a soloist, he has performed with various ensembles including the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, OFUNAM (Mexico), Korean Symphony Orchestra and I Musici de Montréal.
Originally from Lanaudière in Québec, Charles Richard-Hamelin studied with Paul Surdulescu, Sara Laimon, Boris Berman and André Laplante. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in performance from McGill University in 2011 and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music in 2013 and received full scholarships in both institutions. He also completed an Artist Diploma program at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal in 2016 and currently takes lessons on a regular basis with pianist Jean Saulnier. His first solo CD, which features late works by Chopin, was released on the Analekta label in September 2015 and received widespread acclaim from critics throughout the world (Diapason, BBC Music Magazine, Le Devoir).
Invited musicians from the international Orchestra
Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra
Violin
Stanisław Podemski
Flute
Andrzej Krzyżanowski
ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE MONTRÉAL
Contrabass
Ali Yazdanfar
Horn
John Zirbel
To spread “Music for Peace” action over the world, HSO invite journalists form abroad and domestic.
■Robert Markow (Montreal, Canada)
■Robert Cezary Pagacz (Warsaw, Poland/ Canada)
■Janusz Marynowski (Warsaw, Poland)
■Yukiko Hagiya (Japan)