Conductor Keitaro Harada maintains a growing internationalpresence throughout North America, Asia, Mexico, and Europe. The 2020-21 seasonmarked the beginning of his tenure as Music & Artistic Director of theSavannah Philharmonic and Associate Conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra,creating two cities—and two artistic anchors—where he will be based. His broadand eclectic musical scope ranges from symphonic, opera, and chamber works topops, film scores, ballet, educational outreach, and multidisciplinaryprojects, all of which enrich his programming. Recent and upcoming highlights include engagements with thesymphony orchestras of Houston, Seattle, NHK, Yomiuri Nippon, Osaka, Hawaii,Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Memphis, Louisiana, Charlotte, West Virginia, Tucson,Phoenix, and Virginia, as well as the Osaka Philharmonic, KanagawaPhilharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic,and Orquesta Filarmónica de Sonora, in Mexico.
Well versed in the operatic canon, Harada returns nextseason to conduct performances of Mozart’s DieZauberflöte with the North Carolina Opera, where he has previously ledproductions of Pagliacci, Carmen, and Britten’s Turn of the Screw. In 2017, he conductedMazzoli’s Song from the Uproar at theCincinnati Opera, followed by Carmenat Bulgaria’s Sofia National Opera, subsequently leading the production on atour of Japan in 2018. In past seasons and as Associate Conductor of theArizona Opera, he conducted Don Pasquale,La fille du régiment, and Tosca. A 2010 Seiji Ozawa Fellow at theTanglewood Music Festival, he led critically acclaimed performances of Strauss’Ariadne auf Naxos. In the 22-23season, he makes his debut at the Nikikai Opera, conducting performances of Orphée aux enfers.
Harada recently completed his fourth and final season asAssociate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops, where he regularlyassisted Music Director Louis Langrée and collaborated with James Conlon andJuanjo Mena at the orchestra’s annual May Festival. He is a six-time recipient of The Solti Foundation U.S.Career Assistance Award, and in 2013, was invited to the Bruno Walter NationalConductor Preview. He studied with Lorin Maazel at Castleton Festival and FabioLuisi at the Pacific Music Festival, where, at Valery Gerrgiev’s invitation, heserved on the festival’s faculty in 2016, 2018 and 2021. Harada has recordedthree acclaimed albums with the NHK Symphony Orchestra.

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