Takuo Yuasa was born in Osaka where he studied piano, cello, flute and clarinet. At eighteen he left Japan to study in the United States at the University of Cincinnati, where he completed a Bachelor Degree in Theory and Composition. He later moved to Europe to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Hochschule in Vienna, then with Igor Markevich in France and with Franco Ferrara in Siena before he became assistant to Lovro von Matacic, working with him in Monte Carlo, Milan and Vienna. Since winning a Special Award at the Fitelberg International Conducting Competition in Katowice, Poland, Takuo Yuasa has frequently conducted the major orchestras there, including the Warsaw National Philharmonic and Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestras.
Takuo Yuasa conducts several of the main Japanese orchestras, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and the Osaka Century Orchestra, with which he has conducted complete cycles of Brahms and Schumann symphonies. Outside Japan he has conducted the Oslo Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, London Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Brabants Orkest, Luxemburg Philharmonic, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras and in the Unied Kingdom he has been a frequent visitor to the Hallé Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, while his musicianship and infectious leadership has attracted several European music conservatories and the national youth orchestras of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eire to engage him to conduct a new generation of performer. He has held long-term positions as Principal Conductor of the Gumma Symphony Orchestra in Japan, as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and as the hugely successful Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland, a position he held for eight years.
He has a successful recording career as an exclusive Naxos artist with orchestras including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and others. His versatility and breadth of repertoire are recognised by orchestras around the world which engage him to conduct standard core repertoire as well as less well-known pieces by major composers.
