In Sunday’s (3/30) Arizona Republic (Phoenix), Kerry Lengel profiles 29-year-old Keitaro Harada, music director of the Phoenix Youth Symphony and associate conductor at Arizona Opera. “The Tokyo native has earned strong notices at international conducting competitions, been featured on NPR’s ‘From the Top’ and served as rehearsal conductor for Oscar-winning composer John Williams. He founded a youth orchestra in Macon, Ga., when he was barely out of high school himself.” As a youth Harada played saxophone and studied at Michigan’s Interlochen Arts Academy, and in 2008 “moved to Tucson to complete his formal education at the University of Arizona.… Students say that ‘Kei’ creates an intimate rapport with them by sharing details from his life to inspire them to work hard and take chances.… For a person with so many diverse interests”—he enjoys cooking, travel, and collecting antiques— “conducting has continued to challenge Harada because it engages different parts of the brain.” Harada was a participant in the League of American Orchestras’ 2013 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.
Posted March 31, 2014
