Koji Kawamoto

Born in Shimane, Japan in 1972, Kawamoto is a prominent Japanese conductor, the winner of the 10th Tokyo International Music Competition for Conducting and the 59th Prague Spring International Music Competition.

From 1991 to 1995 he studied conducting under the instruction of Hiroshi Wakasugi, Dr. Francis Travis, Masahisa Endo, Hiroyuki Odano, Maestro Sergiu Celibidache and Maestro Valery Gergiev in the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. After that he continued studying with Gustav Meier in the USA, and further deepened his arts with Maestro Charles Dutoit, his main master and the most inspiration to him, by attending the rehearsals around the world with Maestro’s own permission.

2001-2007, Kawamoto was the principal conductor of the Theater Vorpommern and the principal conductor of the North East German Philharmonic.

2008-2014, the music director of Radio Symphony Orchestra Pilsen in the Czech Republic.

In 2013 Kawamoto made his successful debut in China, conducting the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, and due to the success he has been invited to conduct many orchestras in China including Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Xi’an Symphony Orchestra, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra and Qingdao Symphony Orchestra. Today he is virtually the only Japanese conductor who is performing with so many orchestras around in China.

Since 2021, Kawamoto has been the honorary guest conductor of the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra, China.

So far as today, Kawamoto has frequently performed as a guest conductor with more than 50 orchestras in Europe, North and South America, Russia and Asia, including such acclaimed orchestras as Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Thüringen Philharmonic Orchestra Gotha, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Krasnoyarsk Symphony Orchestra, Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Universidad de Concepción, Dnipropetrovsk State Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Now he is scheduled to conduct some of those orchestras again and some new others in the near future.