Collection: Yoshio Watanabe

A Japanese harpsichordist, clavichordist, fortepianist, and conductor, Yoshio Watanabe is a specialist in early music and historically informed performance. He also writes essays and edits musical scores. In 2010, he was awarded the Suntory Music Award.
He was born in Kamakura in 1950. He graduated from Hitotsubashi University, Faculty of Sociology in 1973. He then studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he graduated with a Soloist's Diploma and Prix d'Excellence. After that, he performed in Europe before returning to Japan in 1980. Since then, he has been working to promote and spread the knowledge of early music performance, and he has continued to perform actively. He has performed with Frans Brüggen, Anner Bylsma, John Elwes, Max van Egmond, and many other European and American masters. In 2019, he conducted Monteverdi's "L'Incoronazione di Poppea," which was awarded the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Music Award encouragement prize.
He has released numerous CDs on labels such as Sony, ALM Records, and others, and he won the Record Academy Award for his recordings of Mozart's Fortepiano Duos (with Akiko Sakikawa, ALM Records, 2006) and Works for Harpsichord by Frescobaldi and Froberger (ALM Records, 2016).
His book "Cembalo, Fortepiano, Clavicordo" (Tokyo Shoseki, 2000) is a comprehensive guide to early keyboard instruments that has received widespread acclaim. His 2016 book "Bach, Early Music, and the Cello - Speaking with Anner Bylsma" (Altes Publishing, 2016) was also praised by newspapers and magazines. He has also published edited scores of Mozart's Fantasy and Sonata K.475+457 (1995) and Sonata with Alla Turca (2016), both based on Mozart's autograph scores, through Zen-On Music.
Since 1983, he has taught at Ferris Women's Junior College of Music, Ueno Gakuen College of Music, and Kunitachi College of Music. He is currently a faculty member at Toho-Gakuen College of Music, where he continues to teach and mentor the next generation of harpsichordists. He is also a member of the Japan Harpsichord Society.
[as of 2025]