His passion for conducting was inspired by performance of Beethoven's 9th symphony, and after graduating from the Kagoshima University Faculty of Education (Music), he furthered his artistic development at the prestigious Toho Gakuen School of Music Conducting Seminar and in master classes with Myung-Whung Chung and Yuri Temirkanov at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy (1996), where he received the Diploma presented to the seminar's most outstanding student.

Returning to Japan in 1997, Tatsuya Shimono served as Assistant Conductor at the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, working with conductors such as Takashi Asahina,Yuzo Toyama, Hiroshi Wakasugi and Jean Fournet. Two years later, on a scholarship from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, he moved to Europe to complete his studies at the Vienna Musikhochschule, where he nourished his passion for the great German repertoire.

Once more in Japan, he quickly became a regular guest conductor with all the major Japanese orchestra including the NHK Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Sapporo Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic, Kyoto Symphony and the Hiroshima Symphony .His opera debut in March 2005, conducting The Magical Flute at the New National Theatre Tokyo, received critical acclaim predicting a brilliant future as an opera conductor. Today, the remarkable collaboration he has with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra as its Resident Conductor, a specially-created post, has continued to capture the attention of both press and public since their first concert in November 2006, when they performed Mozart and Corigliano. In August 2008, he will make his debut at the Saito Kinen Festival at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa.

Tatsuya's exceptional charisma and musicality mean he is well-loved by the soloists with which he performs (Kathleen Battle, Pascal Rogé, Lars Vogt, Rainer Kussmaul, Kun Woo Paik, Brigitte Engerer, Anne Quéffelec, François Leleux. Isabelle Faust…) as well as the musicians of the orchestras to which he is regularly invited the Oradea State Symphony Orchestra (Romania), Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg (France), Orchestre National de Bordeaux (France), Wiener Kammer Orchester (Austria) and Orchestre de Cannes PACA. His Paris debut in March 2004, with the Orchestre de Pasdeloup in an all Wagner programme, led to his immediate re-invitation to perform with the orchestra in 2006, in 2007, for the inaugural season of the newly re-opened Salle Pleyel, and in 2008 to perform Beethoven with Jean-Claude Pennetier and in 2005, his much-lauded debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi in a programme of American music led to a further invitation to perform Chopin and Mussorgsky in April 2008.

Each year since 2005, he has been invited to the Folle Journée de Nantes and the Folle Journée de Tokyo, where, with the Orchestre d'Auvergne, Orchestre de Poitou Charentes and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, he has interpreted works by Beethoven, Mozart and Dvorak. The collaboration with the latter orchestra continued with important series of concerts in France in February 2007 and further invitation.

Tatsuya's deep commitment to musical communication means he commits himself to many educational activities including master-classes at the prestigious Affinis Music Festival and a professorship at the Ueno Gakuen University, where the sincerity of his approach to music, his discipline along with his humour and insatiable appetite for contemporary music make him a sought-after mentor.

His recordings include the works by the Japanese composer Hiroshi Ohguri with the Osaka Philharmonic, the very rare Bruckner Symphony No. 0 Nullte with the same orchestra and the latest one is J.S.Bach (arr.Hideo Saito) Chaconne / Corigliano Symphony No.1 with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. All of them achieved tremendous success in the musical press, both internationally and in Japan.

For his outstanding musical activities Tatsuya Shimono is the recipient of many accolades including the Idemitsu and Akeo Watanabe Music awards, and the 2007 Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award.