Yukari Saito

Yukari Saito was born in Tokyo. After completing her studies at Toho Gakuen Music High School, Saito pursued her studies at Toho Gakuen College School of Music majoring in Piano, and auditing in Conducting under the tutelage of Hideomi Kuroiwa, Ken Takaseki, and Toshiaki Umeda. From 2009, Saito participated in the conducting seminar organized by the Rohm Music Foundation and studied conducting with Seiji Ozawa, Yuji Yuasa, and Junji Mitsuishi. She was selected by Seiji Ozawa as a conducting intern, enrolling in a program to receive specialized lessons. In September 2010, Saito conducted “Opera for young people: Hansel and Gretel” at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto (Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival), debuting in opera conducting. As a “conducting researcher” of the Nippon Steel Arts Foundation, she collaborated and trained for a year with Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

In September 2013, Saito relocated to Dresden where she enrolled in the Doctoral program at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden (Dresden College of Music), completing her studies as a pupil of Georg Christoph Sandmann. During this time, with the recommendation by the director of Dresdner Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler, Saito was invited to the Moritzburg Festival to be the assistant conductor of Heinrich Schiff. In 2015, Saito won the “Public favorite prize” and the “Orchestra favorite prize” at the 54th International Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon. In 2016 she debuts in Europe conducting the Lille National Orchestra. The following year, Saito performed with clarinetist Daniel Ottensamer and the Tonkunstler Orchestra in Vienna. From May to July 2018, Saito was appointed as the assistant to Kirill Petrenko, the General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera, for the production of Wagner’s Parsifal.

Saito has conducted various Japanese orchestras such as Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Gunma Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Century Symphony, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Osaka Symphony Orchestra, Chubu Philharmonic Orchestra, Hyogo PAC Orchestra, and Kyushu Symphony Orchestra.

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