Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi

Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi was born in Tokyo, and his early training with Hideo Saito, Japan’s great master teacher and founder of the Toho Conservatory, led to his debut at the age of 12 with the Tokyo Philharmonic. Appearances with Japan’s leading orchestras followed, as did several major prizes, including Japan’s most prestigious, the Mainichi Music Competition. At 18 he made his first international tour as soloist with the NHK Symphony Orchestra to India, Russia and Europe. Following his Tokyo recital debut, a special Fulbright Foundation grant brought him to the USA to study with Janos Starker at Indiana University. Mr. Tsutsumi joined Indiana University’s music faculty as professor of music in 1988.

In 1963 he won International Casals Competition in Budapest, and was soon performing with the major orchestras around the world. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall with the New Japan Philharmonic, in Avery Fisher Hall with the NHK Symphony, and was the soloist at the opening concert of Tokyo’s new Suntory Hall. He has toured Japan with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the former Soviet Union with Seiji Ozawa and the Toho Gakuen Orchestra, with whom he also performed at the United Nations in a concert that was televised worldwide. Other tours have been with Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Tokyo Philharmonic to London and Paris, and the Austrian Broadcasting Symphony. In North America and Europe he has performed with the National Symphony, the Chicago, Indianapolis, Toronto, and Vancouver symphonies; London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the ORTF in Paris, the Berlin Radio Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Czech Philharmonic, with which he recorded the Dvorák Cello Concerto for CBS-Sony.

In Canada he is a frequent performer at summer festivals including the Banff, Ontario Place, Stratford, Music Mountain, Guelph Spring and Algoma Fall festivals, and is heard in annual CBC broadcasts of concerts and recitals. As a founding member of Quartet Canada, Mr. Tsutsumi has toured North America and Japan with Canada’s best-known soloists.

His world premieres of Japanese and Canadian works include the Miyoshi Cello Concerto with the Tokyo Yomjuri Orchestra, and Takemitsu’s Orion and Pleiades with the Tokyo Philharmonic, which he also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the composer’s 60th birthday. Mr. Tsutsumi is a recipient of the prestigious Suntory Award for his contributions to music in Japan. He was also given the rare honor of performing for His Majesty, the late Emperor Hirohito, and in 1993 he was presented the National Academy of Arts Prize by the Emperor.