A versatile musician, Dr. Yutaka Kono is a highly active conductor as the Director of Orchestra/Professor of Music at the University of Vermont, the conductor of Vermont Youth Philharmonia of Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, and the Music Director of Orchestra of Central Tokyo. Dr. Kono is also the Associate Director of the School of the Arts and the Head of Music Program at the University. He was previously the Artistic Director of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, a professional orchestra based in Vermont.
Before moving to Vermont, he was the Assistant Conductor of the Kingsville Symphony Orchestra (TX). Dr. Kono previously taught at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, The University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, and The University of Texas at Austin. He has been recognized as the third-place winner of The American Prize for Orchestral Conducting College/University Division (2014) and the finalist in Professional and Youth Divisions.
He has studied conducting with Jerry Junkin, Mark Kelly, Eugene Dowdy, Peter Bay, and Silas Huff. Dr. Kono was selected to attend the Summer Conductors Institute at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Maestro Neil Varon and conducted the Rochester Philharmonic. Maestra Diane Wittry of Allentown Symphony Orchestra chose Dr. Kono to be one of the conducting fellows for the 2018-19 season to assist in producing February 2019 concerts. His past guest conducting appearances include Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Champlain Philharmonic, Musashino Chamber Orchestra, Iroha Chamber Orchestra, and many others, including high school and middle school festival orchestras.
As a composer and arranger, Dr. Kono’s composition “Mamma at the Gate” for Dancers and Electronics earned the Bronze Medal of the Global Music Award. His music and arrangements have been performed in multiple countries and are published by Tuba-Euphonium Press, Cimarron Press, SMP Press, and Linus Publications. He studied composition with Alex Lubet, Stephan Paulus, and Donald Grantham and orchestration with Pulitzer winner Dominic Argento, Judith Lang Zeimont, and Donald Wilson.
Dr. Kono has been seen across the genre. As a soloist, he won the concerto competition at the University of Minnesota and soloed with many orchestras and bands in Vermont, Ohio, Minnesota, Texas, and Tokyo. He was the principal tubist of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra (TX). He performed with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, Kingsville Symphony Orchestra (TX), San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, and many others. His diverse interests have led him to perform with non-classical ensembles ranging from Jazz and Dixieland to Rock and Klezmer. He studied the tuba with Ivan Hammond, Ross Tolbert, Steven Bryant, Robert Lindahl, Daniel Perantoni, Harvey Phillips, Donald Little, David Zerkel, David Saygers, Paul Hunt, and Eichi Inagawa. He currently performs with a local tuba-euphonium quartet, MetalWerx.
Internationally recognized as a pedagogue and a strong advocate of music education, Dr. Kono has taught hundreds of private students and provided countless clinics and masterclasses. His students have received awards in regional, national and international competitions. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and others from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Bowling Green State University.