Chiyomi Yamada

Chiyomi Yamada was born in Fukuoka, Japan. After her graduation from Kunitachi Music College in Tokyo in 1980 she went to The Netherlands to study Baroque music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Marius van Altena and Dr. Rebecca Stewart. Soon she became a member of the Renaissance cappellae of Dr. Stewart and began to give concerts. This early experience has continued to be influential in shaping Miss Yamada's ideas about Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant. In addition she became the vocalist of 'Alba Musica Kyo', a chamber ensemble directed by Toyohiko Satoh.  With this group she performed in festivals in The Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Canada. Their programs ranged from medieval to modern. In 1983 Miss Yamada traveled throughout Canada as a music envoy of the Japanese government and in 1985 she gave a concert at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Her particular combination of musicality, intelligence, vocal clarity and delicacy continued to please her various audiences and ensured her acceptance within the world of early music. Since 1985 she has traveled back to Japan regularly, helping to increase the appreciation of her audiences for early music.

Her CD's include the following: 'Two Orphean Masters' (Dowland and Purcell) for the CD company Brain; 'Music in Dejima', 'Love and Musical Drama (early Italian Baroque music) for Entée; 'Works of Toyohiko Satoh' (I and II), 'Landini & his time', 'Machaut & his time', 'Music of Shakespeare' for Channel Classics; 'Dawn to the West' (Japanese songs) for Nostalgia.

Since 2002 Miss Yamada has been living in Japan, where she has been developing a new project on the shared Japanese-European cultural history of the 16th and 17th centuries. In 2005 and 2007 she recorded the CDs 'Music to connect Saikai-Portugal' for the Board of Education in Japan.

She also supervises the 'Luty Salon concert series'.