Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi

When Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi won the International Casals Competition in 1963, the press wrote of a discovery comparable to that of David Oistrakh in the 1930s. Born in Tokyo, Tsutsumi began studying the cello at an early age with Hideo Saito. He made his orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Saint Saëns’ Cello Concerto. Soon afterwards he appeared with Japan’s leading orchestras and went on to win a number of major prizes, including the prestigious Mainichi Music Competition.

Internationally, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi has performed with orchestras such as ORTF in Paris, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia London, the Czech Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. Key figures and institutions in his career have included Seiji Ozawa and the Toho Gakuen Orchestra in a concert at the United Nations, the NHK Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, and Mstislav Rostropovich with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Alongside his performing career, Tsutsumi has been deeply committed to teaching. He served as Professor at the University of Illinois before joining the faculty of Indiana University in the autumn of 1988. He has given masterclasses in Japan, Canada, France and the Netherlands, and has been invited to serve on juries of major international competitions, including the ARD Competition in Munich, Rostropovich in Paris, CBC SRC in Ottawa, the Osaka International Competition and others connected to the Casals tradition.

Several of his recordings have been released on Sony. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Japan’s musical life, he received the Suntory Award and was honoured by the Japanese Emperor with a National Academy of Arts prize. In 1997 he was elected the first President of the Japan Cello Society, and in 2000 he became Music Director of the International Kirishima Music Festival as well as President of the Suntory Music Foundation. He later served as President of the Toho Gakuen Music School from 2004 and was appointed President of Suntory Hall Tokyo in September 2007. In 2009 he received Japan’s Purple Ribbon Medal of Honour, and since December 2009 he has been a member of the Japan Art Academy.