Described as ‘one of the most fascinating musical minds of our era’ and ‘a phenomenon’ (Le Figaro) Kazushi Ono has held the position of Principal Conductor of the Opéra de Lyon since the start of the 08/09 season. His current tenure has included new, award winning and critically acclaimed productions of Prokofiev’s The Gambler and Berg’s Lulu and Stravinksy's Le Rossignol. This season Kazushi Ono and the Opéra de Lyon will present Shostakovich’s The Nose and Wagner’s Parsifal.

Kazushi Ono’s career has involved a number of high profile positions including Principal Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (1992-2001) and General Music Director of the Badisches Staatstheater (1996-2002). In 2002, Kazushi Ono succeeded Antonio Pappano as Music Director of La Monnaie, Brussels, where his debut production of Strauss's Elektra was described by the Süddeutsche Zeitung as ‘the miracle of Brussels.’ He enjoyed six highly successful seasons at La Monnaie before moving to Opéra de Lyon. He is also Conductor Laureate of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. These positions are testimony to the importance he places on devoting time to building foundations and forging strong relationships with orchestras.

In addition to these tenures, Kazushi Ono has been guest conductor with some of the world’s leading international orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, City of Birmingham Symphony, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Together with radio orchestras such as Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Vienna Radio Symphony, Danish, Netherlands and Finnish Radio he has also conducted numerous German radio orchestras including Hamburg, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Köln as well as BBC Symphony and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Kazushi Ono has conducted almost all of Wagner’s operas, most notably the complete Ring Cycle at the Karlsruhe Opera during his tenure there from 1996-2002 as well as several operatic world premieres including Luca Francesconi’s Ballata, Toshio Hosokawa’s Hanjo and Philippe Boesmans’s Julie.

He will return to the Met Opera this season following his successful debut there with Verdi’s Aïda in 2007. His recent guest opera appearances include Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol at the Festival d’Aix – en – Provence, Strauss’s Elektra at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Verdi’s Macbeth at La Scala, Hänsel und Gretel at Glyndebourne and a new production of Szymanowski’s King Roger at Opéra de Paris. Kazushi Ono will return to Aix- en- Provence this summer for a production of Shostakovich’s The Nose.

Kazushi Ono also has a strong affection for the theatre and works not only with established opera directors such as Luc Bondy, Peter Stein, Laurent Pelly and David McVicar but has also enjoyed collaborations with artists outside the traditional opera field such as the visual artist Jan Fabre, choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker> and film director François Girard.

His varied catalogue of CD recordings demonstrates his wide repertoire, ranging from Chin (Deutsche Grammophon), Gubaidulina, Britten, Turnage and Rihm to Shostakovich, Mahler, Strauss and Tchaikovsky. Other recent recordings include a 2009 Decca DVD of the acclaimed production of Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel filmed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Glyndebourne as well as releases from the Opus Arte label featuring productions of Verdi’s Aïda and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, both with La Monnaie, Brussels.

Winner of the 3rd Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition (Parma 1987), he is Principal Guest Conductor of Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini since January 2012.