Toshiyuki Kamioka was born in Tokyo, where he studied conducting, composition, the piano and the violin at the National University of Fine Arts & Music. In 1982, he was awarded the coveted Ataka Prize and two years later received a Rotary International Fellowship to attend the Hamburg Conservatory where he studied conducting under Klauspeter Seibel.

By 1987, he had become a lecturer in chamber music and accompaniment at the Hamburg Conservatory and, in the 2000/01 season, he stood in as professor of the opera classes at the Frankfurt-am-Main Conservatory. Since the autumn of 2004, he has been working as professor of conducting at the Saar Conservatory (HfM Saar) in Saarbrücken.

Toshiyuki Kamioka gained his first theatre experience as répétiteur for soloists and as Kapellmeister at the Städtische Bühnen in Kiel. From 1992 to 1996, he was the lead Kapellmeister at the Aalto Theater in Essen. Between 1996 and 2004, he held the post of general music director at the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden. During the eight seasons from 1998 to 2006, Toshiyuki Kamioka was chief conductor of the Nordwest-deutsche Philharmonie in Herford, at the same time he was invited to tour regularly in Germany and abroad. Concerts with ensembles such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra have gained him an international reputation. Press and public heap equal praise on his highly musical and sophisticated interpretations. Aside from his commitments as conductor, Toshiyuki Kamioka also continues to delight audiences with his subtle interpretations and virtuosity as a piano soloist.

Maestro Kamioka was the Wuppertal general music director from the 2004/05 season onwards. In 2009/10 he changed position to become chief conductor and artistic director. Under his baton, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra (WSO) has developed considerably, both musically and technically, leading to regular invitations to appear in Milan. Building on its successful nine-day concert tour in Japan in 2007, the orchestra returned there for a further, more extensive visit in October 2010. During this stay of fourteen days, the orchestra had ten concerts in nine cities, such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Fukushima, Nagoya and Fukuoka. In August 2011 the WSO gave its debut with Toshiyuki Kamioka in a sold out performance in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam where they were joined by Tzimon Barto at the piano playing Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concert No 1.

Toshiyuki Kamioka has simultaneously acted as the general music director of the Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken since the 2009/10 season.

In 2010, Toshiyuki Kamioka received the »Von der Heydt-Kulturpreis« of Wuppertal. At the beginning of 2011, the Music Pen-Club Japan awarded him the »Concert Performance Prize« for his work as conductor of Japanese orchestras and as conductor for the tour through Japan with the WSO.
(August 2011)

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