Noriaki Kitamura
He was born in Kobe on December 12, 1949. His dead father was a conductor. His uncle was also a conductor in New York. Another uncle is an emeritus professor of the conductor course of Osaka College Of Music. He was born and brought up in such surroundings.

When he was 12 years old, he started to learn to play on a flute. He was admitted to Kyoto City University of Arts, and studied the flute under Professor Masao Yoshida and Professor Kouichi Itoh.After he graduated from the University, he learned to conduct under the late Kazuo Yamada who was a prince of the Japanese classic conductor's world. Since then, as he served as assistant for free to Mr. Yamada at Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, he gained experience of opera under Takashi Asahina. He acquired a large repertoire of opera as a conductor of Kansai Opera.

In 1981, he made his debut as a conductor. The repertoire was “Oedipus Rex” of Igor Stravinsky. His conducting and direction are so acclaimed. In 1991, he conducted “The Magic Flute” of W.A.Mozart. It was produced by Sanshi Katsura, one of the famous Japanese street tellers. His conducting received a favorable review that it was traditional and elegant even though the stage direction was fresh. In 1994, he was given Diploma for the best interpretation of Robert Schumann's Symphony No.4 in d-minor. It was when “The third International Masterclass For Conductors” was opened by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra at Olomouc, Czech Republic. In 1997, he recorded Symphony No.4 and No.1 of Schumann with Moravska filharmonie Olomouc. It was the especial glory for the Diploma. The CD was well received and more than 1000 discs were sold out.He performed great services to various fields. He has judged many competitions of All Japan Band Association for years. As a conductor, he has a conductor's master class and educates youngers. As a lecturer, he has been appointed to several Universities, Kobe Yamate Women's Junior College, Kobe College Department of Music, etc. As a scholar, he wrote reports, “Performance analysis by sound spectrogram” and “Elementary Phraset：Minimum Division of a Phrase and its Importance in a Performance”. Also he wrote books, “Manual of Music” “Manual of Ensemble” “Manual of musical Reading” “Manual of Performance” and “Manual of Direction”.