Masaaki Suzuki first gained recognition as a keyboardist during the initial phase of his professional life, yet after establishing the Bach Collegium Japan in 1990 he has become recognized among the foremost interpreters of Baroque choral repertoire. Celebrated for his expertise with Bach, he has directed the ensemble through exhaustive accounts of the composer’s vocal output together with numerous orchestral pieces such as the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites, all issued on the BIS label. He has also documented every harpsichord composition by Bach and launched a series devoted to the organ works in 2015. Beyond this core focus, his programs encompass scores by Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, and additional composers. In 2020 he released a harpsichord recording of Bach’s Toccatas.
Born in Kobe, Japan, on April 29, 1954, Suzuki displayed musical ability from an early age and served as a church organist by the time he turned twelve. He subsequently attended the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, pursuing studies in both composition and organ under Akio Yashiro and Tsuguo Hirono. After earning a master’s degree in organ performance in 1979—having already completed a bachelor’s in composition—he sought additional training at Amsterdam’s Sweelinck Conservatory, working with Piet Kee on organ and Ton Koopman on harpsichord. In 1980 he captured second prize for harpsichord improvisation at the Flanders Early Music Festival in Bruges, Belgium; three years later he received third prize for organ at the same event. Between 1981 and 1983 he taught harpsichord at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Duisburg, Germany. Beginning in 1983 he appeared frequently in Japan as an organ and harpsichord recitalist while joining the faculty of Kobe Shoin Women’s College, where he remains a guest professor.
Concurrently, Suzuki took up the baton with modest groups, an endeavor that expanded until he founded the Bach Collegium Japan in 1990. Comprising vocalists and period-instrument players, the ensemble commenced its regular concert series in 1992 under his continuing direction as music director. These duties augmented his existing commitments as performer and educator; in 1991 he was named professor of organ and harpsichord at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he inaugurated an early-music curriculum in 2000 that he oversaw until 2010. From 2009 to 2013 he instructed choral conducting at Yale University and maintains ties there as principal guest conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum.
Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan commenced recording every Bach cantata for BIS in 1995, finishing the sacred cycle in 2014 and the secular works in 2018. The partnership has produced all of Bach’s choral compositions for the label, among them a 2007 Mass in B minor and a 2010 set of Motets, each awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année. Although Bach accounts for a substantial share of their discography, comparable recognition has come with other composers, including a Gramophone Award for choral music granted in 2016 for Mozart’s Great Mass and again in 2020 for the album Bach: St. Matthew Passion. As a soloist Suzuki has documented the complete harpsichord works of Bach and continues the corresponding project for the organ; a recording of the Toccatas appeared in 2020.
