Biography *
In addition to the current Music Directorship of the Amarillo Symphony and the Principal Guest Conducting position with the Osaka Symphony Orchestra, Kimbo Ishii-Eto has been recently appointed to become Music Director of the Theater Magdeburg in Germany beginning in December 2010. During the 1999-2007 season, he has served as Music Director of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and in 2006-2008 he has been active as Principal Conductor of the Komische Oper Berlin (KOB), where he has been conducting performances of Rigoletto, Turandot, Fidelio, The Magic Flute, The Bartered Bride, The Barber of Seville, The Golden Cock, Die Fledermaus, The Marriage of Figaro and two Zemlinsky operas (Der Zwerg and The Florentinische Tragedy), in addition to conducting the Komische Oper Berlin's coveted orchestra concerts. Ishii-Eto recently conducted the premier production of The Tales of Hoffmann, which became the best-selling production in the Komische Oper Berlin's history.
Born in Taiwan, Ishii-Eto regularly performs in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Ishii-Eto appears frequently as a guest conductor with the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Japan), the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the China Broadcast Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica and the Kammerakademie Potsdam (Germany). He also has conducted the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Manchester Camerata (England), the Silesian Philharmonic (Poland), the Bochum Symphony (Germany), the Sønderjylland Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), Orchestra Philharmonikade (Lima, Peru), and Shanghai Symphony. His festival activities include conducting at the Kusatsu International Music Festival in Japan, a guest faculty appointment at the C.W. Post Chamber Music Festival (1996-99), and two Conducting Fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Festival. For several seasons, he was a Cover Conductor with both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic before joining the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra as Music Director.
Ishii-Eto's most recent debut appearances include the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerorchestra (Berlin), and at the Skaneateles Festival. Other career highlights include several NTV concert broadcasts with the Yomiuri Japan Symphony Orchestra, and his recording debut conducting the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ishii-Eto's internationally renowned conducting teachers and coaches include Sir Simon Rattle, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Michael Charry, Max Rudolf and Chosei Komatsu. He received his master's degree in Conducting from the Mannes College of Music and was awarded the George & Elizabeth Gregory Award for Performance Excellence. He was a prizewinner in Denmark's (1995) Nikolai Malko International Conducting Competition. Mr. Ishii-Eto studied violin with Mr.Walter Barylli at the State Conservatory in Vienna after years of training in Japan with Mr. Kazaoka, and continued his violin studies with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang at the Juilliard School.