Press Release – ECSO Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada Contract Extension
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6/10/2025
Eastern CT Symphony Announces Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada Contract Extension
The ECSO is pleased to announce that Music Director and Conductor, Toshi Shimada, has signed a 4-year contract extension following the celebration of his 15th Season with the orchestra.
Shimada also serves as Music Director and Conductor of various prestigious orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes and the New Britain Symphony Orchestra. He was also the Music Director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra at Yale University from 2005-2019.
He holds the title of Music Director Laureate of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine and has performed as guest conductor with many orchestras including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, L’Orchestre National de Lille in France, the Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra at the DMZ in Korea and most recently with the Istanbul Devlet Senfoni Orkestrasi and La Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco in Mexico. He has guest conducted premier orchestras including the Boston Pops Orchestra, the San Jose Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and several others.
Shimada has collaborated with many esteemed artists including Itzhak Perlman, Andre Watts, Joshua Bell, Peter Serkin, Evelyn Glinnie, Willie Nelson, and Marvin Hamlisch and has studied with Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Shimada’s performances have graced such renowned concert halls as Carnegie Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the Musikverein in Vienna.
ECSO Board President Liane Crawford shared, “We are delighted that Toshi has chosen to extend his contract with ECSO.”
As reviewed by Lee Howard in The Day November 2024:
“Under the baton of Shimada over the course of the past 15 years, this orchestra’s musicianship has steadily increased to make it one of the small wonders of the American symphony world.”
ECSO will celebrate the beginning of its 79th Season on Opening Night October 4.
The season will include music that resonates with this country’s 250th anniversary celebration and a Holiday Matinee Concert on Saturday December 6.
ECSO performs at The Garde Arts Center in New London, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Norwich, The Fine Arts Center at Eastern CT State University, on Block Island, at local schools and chamber concerts at various venues throughout the area.
For more information, please visit the ECSO website at www.ectsymphony.com.
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