【INTRODUCING MYSELF】

Both my parents were singing and naturally I got interested in music. I spent great deal of time by piano when I was a baby. I took piano lessons when I was little. However, I was the kind of kid who didn't like practicing and was always trying to escape from lessons.

I got interested in singing when I was in jujior high school or high school. I started singing in a high school choir like many singers do. I went to a university where I majored in economics. I have never taken formal musical training to become a professional musician.

After graduated from university, I got a job that had nothing to do with music and had very limited time for music. I moved to the US. and that was when I started studying singing again. I was studying various music with a good voice teacher.

I came back to Japan and had less time for music but have encountered a totally different kind of music. I was invited to a group called Ali Baba and 15 Thieves, an a cappella group. I have been singing with them for 23 years.

A big change came in the 90s. I was singing on various occasions and that got me interested in more challenging activities. The change came when I had a small concert in 1995 with a pianist, Mika Sato, and sang An die Ferne Geliebste by Beethoven. In the party afterwards, we decided to have a recital the following year.

The recital was done with love pieces by Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann. It was such a tough work that I said I would never do it again. However, it wasn't long before I planned the next one. I sang Schubert's Erlkoenig and other pieces in Nagoya in 1997 and that was when the plan for Nagoya recital started. Originally I was planning lighter joint concert with a few musisians, however I couldn't find anyone to do it with. I had to do it by myself and it turned out Schubert's Winterreise.

The year 1999 was the hardest year of singing. I had 10 concerts in a year that include the complete Winterreise and my first opera, Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck followed by another big opera, Il Trovatore by Verdi only a month later.

In January, 2001, I sang Renato in Un Ballo In Maschera by Verdi which I had been longing for since I was in junior high school. My voice and music don't necesarilly fit Verdi's music and it wasn't easy to act, but it was a good experience singing in an opera.

I sang Schubert's Winterreise again in February, 2002. This was an experience that taught me real toughness of the stage. It also taught me that there is god in a concert hall. I have sung complete Winterreise 3 times and planning for my 6th and last recital, Schubert's Schwanengesang in February 2012. It will be my last recital but not the last concert. I have been doing various interesting concerts with other singers and will continue that series.

HOME

Julius Caesar	7-12-100 B.C.
Josiah Wedgwood	7-12-1730
Amedeo Modigliani	7-12-1884
Oscar Hammerstein II	7-12-1895
Kirsten Flagstad	7-12-1895
Yasushi Akutagawa	7-12-1925
Simon Yotsuya	7-12-1944
Chizuko Ueno	7-12-1948
Akinobu Mayumi	7-12-1953
Misato Watanabe	7-12-1966
Gabriel	7-12-19XX

NAME	Yoshihiko Suzuki
DATE OF BIRTH	July 12, 19XX
BIRTH PLACE	Tokyo, Japan
HOME ADDRESS	Tokyo, Japan
OCCUPATION	Corporate Executive