Nodoka Okisawa

Newly appointed chief conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Nodoka Okisawa is the winner of the renowned Concours international de jeunes chefs d’orchestre de Besançon 2019, where she was awarded the Grand Prix, the Orchestra Prize and the Audience Prize. In 2018 she won the Tokyo International Music Competition for Conducting, one of the most important international conducting competitions.

From 2020 until 2022, Nodoka Okisawa held a scholarship at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker and was the assistant to Kirill Petrenko. In addition to her own concert projects together with the academy members of the Berliner Philharmoniker she conducted the Solidarity Concert for Ukraine with members of the Berlin Philharmonic at the invitation of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace in March 2022. Another highlight was the joint anniversary concert with Kirill Petrenko for the 50th anniversary of the Karajan Academy in May 2022.

Last season she made debuts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig and the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich among others. She also regularly conducts the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa.

Born in 1987 in Aomori, Japan, she studied piano, cello and oboe as a child. She studied conducting at the Tokyo University of the Arts with Ken Takaseki and Tadaaki Otaka and graduated with a master’s degree. In 2019 she obtained her second master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin under Christian Ehwald and Hans-Dieter Baum. Nodoka Okisawa lives in Berlin.

Earlier this year, Nodoka was awarded the “Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award” by the Sony Music Foundation.