Fun Chronology of Yoko Matsuo

1953
Yoko is born in Nagoya on a snowy day.
1957
Yoko enters Ooe Kindergarten. She cries every day there. She misses about half ofher classes in the two school years.
1959
Yoko enters Taisei Elementary School. Isewan Typhoon hits Nagoya and Yoko becomesa friend of the typhoon. Yoko starts learning the piano. She cries in every piano lesson.
1965
Yoko enters Nanko Junior High School. Yoko gets obsessed with playing tennis withthree others in the classroom. She stays as late as she can. The third act intermezzoof The Jewels of the Madonna by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari becomes Yoko’s favorite song.
1968
Yoko enters Meiwa High School. The male students call her, “Boss.” Yoko joins thevolleyball club as well as the railway club. Yoko listens to Mahler’s Symphony works.
Yoko becomes interested in orchestral scores.
1971
Yoko enters Ochanomizu University, majoring in music education. Yoko is surprised byseeing only female students on campus. She is planning to write on Mahler for her
graduation thesis.
1972
Yoko encounters It Only Happens to Others by a French pop singer, Michel Polnareff,
which is a major turning point in her life. Her interest in French music begins.
1973
Yoko conducts Ravel’s opera, The Child and the Spells for the first time in her Junioryear. Yoko complains to the orchestra though she does not know conducting.
1974
Yoko is apprenticed to Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi, who gives her intimidating lessons. She

Fun Chronology of Yoko Matsuo

decides to become a conductor.
1975
After graduating from the Ochanomizu University, Yoko enters the Tokyo University ofthe Arts, majoring in conducting.

Yoko yells at her judge during her entrance

examination. Yoko is the only student enrolled in the Department of Conducting thatyear. Yoko spends a freshman year for the second time.
1976
Yoko travels various places as the assistant conductor for Niki-kai’s opera performanceof Yūzuru.

Between studies at the university, Yoko conducts for many amateurorchestras. She attends classes when she is not conducting.
1979
Yoko conducts Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No.3 for her graduation performance.

Shecontinues to study at the graduate school. She decides to study abroad in Paris and toenter the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors.
1980
Yoko becomes the conductor of the Gunma Symphony Orchestra for its music education
program. Yoko is busy performing daily, which keeps her from attending classes at theuniversity.
1981
After completing her graduate study, Yoko studies abroad as the recipient of thescholarship program by Rotary International, and enters the Department of Orchestral
Conducting at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. Yoko studies under Professor
Pierre Dervaux.

Yoko begins living in Paris, her favorite city.

Yoko makes lots ofFrench friends.
1982
Yoko wins the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors sharing theGolden Lyre Award with Osmo Vanska from Finland. After returning to Japan, Yoko
becomes an instructor at the Department of Conducting at the Tokyo University of theArts. She is continuously interviewed by magazines.

Fun Chronology of Yoko Matsuo

1983
Yoko conducts the NHK Symphony Orchestra for its concert for young talented
musicians. Yoko conducts her debut concert (in a thunder storm). Yoko attends theuniversity entrance examination as a test examiner for the first time, but the campus
guard asks her for her student ID.

Yoko conducts various orchestras such as theOrchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Orchestre Symphonique de la RTBF.
Yoko also performs at Salzburg and Vienna. Yoko receives the Avon Awards to Women.
1984
Yoko conducts an orchestra made up of only female players, though she wonders why.
Yoko conducts The Merry Widow as her opera debut and tastes the fun of conducting inan orchestra pit.
1985
Yoko conducts the Orchestre Lamoureux at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

The

concert is delayed for thirty minutes due to a snow storm which has paralyzedtransportation in the city.
1986
Yoko gets her driver’s license and exclusively drives a Toyota Chaser. Yoko meets theNerima Symphony Orchestra.
1987
Yoko meets the Ashiya Symphony Orchestra for the first time before her relationshipwith the orchestra over the years. Yoko conducts an operetta, The Bat.
1988
Yoko conducts a difficult opera, Carmen.
1989
Yoko conducts an opera, Hamlet by Thomas, the first performance in Japan.
1990
Associations to support Yoko are founded in Tokyo and Nagoya, and Yoko is blessed with
their reliable support. Yoko receives the TOYP Grand Prize.

Fun Chronology of Yoko Matsuo

1991
Yoko conducts an opera, Così fan tutte. Yoko has a hard time with the Italian language.
1992
Yoko’s water painting is selected for the first time for the Daichokai exhibition. She
finished the painting, working through the night before. She starts aerobic exercises.
1993
Yoko tours Berlin and Vienna with the Ashiya Symphony Orchestra. Her first book,Madomoazeru Ga Shefu Datte, is published. In 2003 the book is revised and publishedas Shikisha Ni Myuuzu Ga Hohoenda.
1994
Yoko conducts Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, a magnificent and complex
composition!
1995
Yoko falls down the stairs and dislocates her right shoulder. She spends inconvenient
but vigorous days with only her left hand.
1996
Yoko conducts an opera, The Fallen Woman. Then Yoko attends the Italian language
school.
1997
Yoko conducts the opera, Aida in Nerima for the first time. Yoko has conducted theopera many times since then.
1998
Yoko becomes the guest resident conductor of the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra.
Yoko leads the Silvester Concert at the Biwako Hall Center as the conductor andpresenter.
1999
Yoko becomes the resident conductor of the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra andkeeps the position until 2004.

Yoko is preoccupied with producing various events.

Fun Chronology of Yoko Matsuo

Yoko holds a piano recital with the students of the Conducting Department at the Tokyo
University of the Arts, who reluctantly perform at the concert. Yoko appears in NHK’s

Yōkoso Senpai. The program is recorded at the elementary school in Nagoya where sheattended.
2000
Yoko conducts the opera, Don Giovanni at the Noh stage theatre, wearing kimono andhakama with a tasuki cord.
2001Yoko serializes her article for Chunichi Shimbun (Kami Ttubute) and Tokyo Shimbun(Hōshasen), and becomes busy writing an article every week.

Yoko conducts

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Carnegie Hall in New York.
2002
Yoko holds a concert for the twentieth anniversary of winning the International
Besançon Competition for Young Conductors with the musicians whom Yoko has taught.
2003

Another Romance of Carmen, an opera choreographed with jōruri and Japanesetraditional dancing, is performed with great success. Yoko founds The Female Chorus

Madonna Kakitsubata in Nagoya. Yoko starts arranging songs.
2004
Yoko stays in Paris for eighty days as the recipient of the overseas study program of theAgency for Cultural Affairs, and devotes herself to her study with the Orchestre de Paris.
Yoko is impressed by how convenient it has become to live in Paris.
2005
Yoko conducts Another Romance of Carmen at the Aichi EXPO Dome. Yoko organizes
the Ensemble FORTE and somehow performs Beethoven.

The Triphony Junior

Orchestra is born, and Yoko makes friends with many children.
2006
Yoko’s song book arranged for female chorus, Six Pieces of Esprit, is published. Eachsong arrangement by Yoko is well received. Yoko serializes her articles for Chunichi

Fun Chronology of Yoko Matsuo

Shimbun (Enta Me). She makes effort to find concerts in order to write her articles.
2007
Yoko conducts the opera, Macbeth. She reads the story William Shakespeare wrote forthe first time in many years. Yoko tours around Japan with the Orchestras for theconcert events sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and its hard schedule isbeyond imagination. Yoko flies from place to place though she dislikes airplanes.
2008
Yoko teaches at the Department of Conducting at the Tokyo University of the Arts as avisiting professor. She spends more time working with her computer, which led her tobegin exercising at a sports gym. As a result, she becomes more vigorous.