Yasuhito Sugiyama

[jacojdm]

The Plain Dealer ran a nice story on Sugiyama and his career the other day. He's a fine player who has been a part of some of the world's great ensembles.

[Chris Smith]

I don't care how loud he plays but
"He loves Western food, especially Italian cuisine and buffalo wings, and all nationalities of beer."
is good enough for my book.

[Glaucon]

I would like to begin by saying that I always think it sad when an affiliation between a tuba player and an orchestra doesn't work out, as was the case with Mr. Sugiyama and Vienna.

With that said, I am very glad to have Mr. Sugiyama in Cleveland. If you haven't heard this guy, you are really missing out. The Cleveland Orchestra has a DVD out of Bruckner 5 on tour (in Bruckner's church) in 2006, and the brass playing is absolutely inhuman.

In addition to being an incredible tuba player and incredible musician, Mr. Sugiyama is a wonderful and warm person who is a joy to be around. I have taken several lessons with Mr. Sugiyama and each one has left me crosseyed at his incredible musicianship. Finally, Mr. Sugiyama retains a warm relationship with Mr. Ron Bishop, the previous holder of the tuba chair in the Cleveland Orchestra.

In short, we are all lucky to have a player like Mr. Sugiyama to represent and further the art on our favorite instrument. If you haven't gotten a chance to hear this guy play, LOOK HIM UP!

[J.c. Sherman]

Yasu is a wonderful musician and a great guy. First time I met him, his first order of business was "we should do lunch" (motioning a beer mug with his hand). You gotta love that.

He is a remarkable player and a friendly guy. Also, he's sensative to appropriate instrument for each piece, which is great (the bruckner recording was made on a Fafner, if I recall).

Bishop's are huge shoe's to fill. His will be too!

J.c.S.

[dvtuba]

His sweet and "simple" little tune in that video is utterly endearing...also his very "simple" explanation of the tuba's job in the orchestra...

I feel I'm a little late to the game in learning more about this guy. I knew he had won the gig a few years back, but living so far from Cleveland, I also knew seeing him live wouldn't be a possibility. Besides the DVD mentioned, are there any NEW CD recordings of Cleveland w/ him? I've checked iTunes and there just seems to be a load of re-releases. I checked the orchestra store, but there's no mention of rec. date on any of the (16 pages of) cd's.

Anybody know?

[swillafew]

I just heard him (and first learned about him) at the National Brass Ensemble concert. He played great, with an impressive presence of sound.

[Ace]

I heard Sugiyama at the National Brass Ensemble concert last year at California State University-Sonoma. Make no mistake about it----the guy can crank it out with the best of them. He's a very fine musician who plays tastefully at all dynamic levels.

Ace