Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra was founded in April 1962 by three members of The Yomiuri Group – The Yomiuri Shimbun Newspaper company, Nippon Television Network Corporation, and Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation – to promote orchestral music throughout Japan.
Sebastian WEIGLE has been the orchestraʼs tenth Principal Conductor since April 2019. The orchestra has Juraj VALČUHA
as Principal Guest Conductor, SUZUKI Masato as Associate Conductor & Creative Partner, Sylvain CAMBRELING as Conductor Laureate, OTAKA Tadaaki as Honorary Guest Conductor, and KOBAYASHI Ken-ichiro as Special Guest Conductor.
Since its foundation, YNSO has invited such distinguished conductors as KHACHATURIAN, STOKOWSKI, OTTERLOO, CELIBIDACHE, MAAZEL, ROZHDESTVENSKY, and TEMIRKANOV as well as world-renowned soloists such as RUBINSTEIN, RICHTER, ARGERICH, Yo-Yo MA, KREMER, and POGORELICH to name only a few.
YNSO currently has seven major concert series in Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka, and some performances are broadcast
on television through Nippon Television Network.
Since its first overseas tour to North America in 1967, YNSO has been to Europe on tour seven times. The orchestra was invited to represent Asia at the Festival de Musica de Canarias on the Canary Islands in 2000. In the same year, YNSO became the first Japanese orchestra to perform in the annual Abonnement series at the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg. In October 2024, YNSO successfully toured in Europe, led by WEIGLE.
In November 2017, the orchestra performed Messiaen’s opera “Saint François dʼAssise” in concert style with CAMBRELING. It was the Japan premiere as a full-length performance and received the Suntory Music Award. In December 2022, YNSO was awarded the Grand Prize of the 77th Agency for Cultural Affairs National Arts. In March 2025, YNSO performed Berg’s opera “Wozzeck” with WEIGLE. It was highly acclaimed and the performance received the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation Music Award in July 2025.
The orchestra also actively contributes to the society, including ‘Heartful’ Concerts” for cancer patients and their families at hospitals throughout Japan in cooperation with the charity Shoriki Welfare Foundation as well as “Friendship Concerts” at elementary and junior high schools, expanding musical and cultural involvement in the society.
