TOSHIYUKI SHIMADA is currently Music Director and Conductor of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra in New London; Music Director and Conductor of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes; and Music Director and Conductor of the New Britain Symphony Orchestra.  Previously held appointments include Music Director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra of Yale University (2005-19), Music Director Laureate of the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine) (1986 to 2006), Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony (1981-86) and since 1998 he has served as Principal Conductor of the Vienna Modern Masters recording label in Austria.

Internationally he has frequently been on the podium of La Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco, in Guadalajara, Mexico, and continues close association with Turkish Orchestras, including the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Borsan Istanbul Philharmonic, the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared in Austrian Radio Kulturhaus, in Vienna, with the MUK Symphony Orchestra, and in 2017 he led the Yale Symphony Orchestra on the highly successful Russian Tour, followed by the tours of Brazil, Turkey and Italy. Innumerable guest conducting appearances include the Slovak Philharmonic, NÖ Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna, L'Orchestre National de Lille in France, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Symphony Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival.  

In 2018, as a peace mission, Maestro Shimada conducted a nationally televised concert at the DMZ, South Korea, with the Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra, and the following summer, he has appeared with the same orchestra in Jeju Island for the commemoration of the Massacre 4.3.

North American conducing appearances include the Houston Symphony, the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the San José Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Cambiata Soloists, a contemporary music ensemble in Houston, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra at Rice University, and the YMF Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles.  Prestigious collaborations include artists such as Itzhak Perlman, André Watts, Peter Serkin, Emmanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Idil Biret, Janos Starker, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Cho-Liang Lin, Sir James Galway, Barry Tuckwell, and Dame Evelyn Glennie.  He has also collaborated with Willie Nelson, Doc Severinsen and Marvin Hamlisch. 

Maestro Shimada has had the good fortune to study with many distinguished conductors of the past and the present, including Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Herbert Blomstedt, Hans Swarovsky, and Michael Tilson Thomas.  In 1979 he was a finalist in International Herbert von Karajan conducting competition in Berlin, and a Fellow Conductor in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute in 1983. In addition, he was named Ariel Musician of the Year in 2003 by Ariel Records, and received the ASCAP award in 1989.  He graduated from California State University, Northridge, studying with David Whitwell and Lawrence Christianson, and attended the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna, Austria.

Consistently recognized as an integral and beloved member of every community he joins, Maestro Shimada has received recognitions from the Portland Fire Department's Merit Award, the Maine Publicity Bureau Cultural Award, and the Italian Heritage Society Cultural Award. He has had a number of state and city holidays named in his honor: Toshiyuki Shimada Day in Houston, TX; Toshiyuki Shimada Week in Portland, Maine; Toshiyuki Shimada Day in the State of Maine; and Toshiyuki Shimada Day in the State of Connecticut. In May 2006 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts by Maine College of Arts.

Maestro Shimada records for the Naxos and the Vienna Modern Masters labels, has made fifteen CDs with the Moravian Philharmonic, in Czech Republic. He also records for Capstone Records, Querstand-VKJK (Germany), and Albany Records. His Paul Hindemith CD of the complete piano concerti with the famed Turkish pianist, Idil Biret, was released in 2013. His Music from the Vatican with the Prague Chamber Orchestra and Chorus is available through iTunes and Rhapsody. 

A sought after educator he has been Associate Professor of Conducting with Yale School of Music and Department of Music, Director of the Orchestra Activity at Connecticut College, a faculty member of Rice University (Houston), the University of Southern Maine; and served as Artist Faculty at the Houston Institute of Aesthetic Study. He has conducted All State Honor and Regional Honor Orchestras for Connecticut, California, New York, Maine and Massachusetts. He was one of the distinguish speakers at the Chopin Symposium 2010, at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. He has  been teaching at the New York Conducting Workshop, and he has also served as a Board Member of the International Conductors Guild.

October 1, 2023