Dr. Yasuhisa Toyota is Executive Advisor and founder of Nagata Acoustics International. With over 45 years of experience in designing some of the world’s finest performance venues, Dr. Toyota is an established international authority in the field of concert hall design.
Dr. Toyota began his professional career in 1977, joining Nagata Acoustics immediately following his academic studies. Over the next two decades, he collaborated closely with Dr. Minoru Nagata, the company’s founder, retired president and current executive advisor. (Dr. Nagata is best known for his acoustical leadership on the design and construction of Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and many other internationally recognized Japanese halls). In 2001 Dr. Toyota spearheaded launching an office in Los Angeles, and in 2008 Nagata Acoustics International was formed. Over his career, Dr. Toyota has been project leader for more than 50 concert hall and multipurpose hall projects. His expertise focuses on hall configuration design and the design of acoustical spaces for orchestral, chamber music and other non-amplified musical genres.
Some of Dr. Toyota’s most prominent acoustical designs include Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Danish Radio Concert Hall in Copenhagen, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; all of which enjoy stellar international reputations. The late Maestro Herbert von Karajan described Suntory Hall as “truly a jewel box of sound”, and esteemed conductor Sir Simon Rattle praised Walt Disney Concert Hall as “the best modern concert hall in the world” and a “wonderful gift to music” when he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the hall in November of 2003.
Dr. Toyota studied at Kyushu Institute of Design and graduated with a Bachelor of Design degree in Acoustical Design and Engineering in 1977. The Kyushu Institute’s comprehensive Acoustic Design Department provided Dr. Toyota with training in acoustical engineering, as well as a firm foundation in topics essential to approaching concert hall design, including audiology, musicology and musical performance. At Kyushu Institute, Dr. Toyota gained both in-depth technical knowledge and broad experience in musical performance and concert hall production work. Dr. Toyota’s interest in music, however, started long before he began his undergraduate studies. Throughout his formative years Dr. Toyota played saxophone and oboe in orchestras, where he also gained experience as a conductor. Dr. Toyota continued his performance career in the Kyushu Institute’s student orchestra, and later in amateur orchestras during the early years of his professional career with Nagata Acoustics.
In the summer of 2004, Dr. Toyota received honorary doctorates of science from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY and the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA.
Among Dr. Toyota’s completed projects, some of the best known are:
- Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan (1986)
- Kyoto Concert Hall, Kyoto, Japan (1994)
- Sapporo Concert Hall (Kitara), Sapporo, Japan (1997)
- Bard College Performing Arts Center, New York, NY, U.S.A. (2003)
- Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (2003)
- MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall, Kawasaki, Japan (2004)
- Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia (2006)
- Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark (2009)
- New World Center, Miami Beach, FL, U.S.A. (2011)
- Helsinki Music Center Concert Hall, Helsinki, Finland (2011)
- Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City, MO, U.S.A. (2011)
- Stanford University Bing Concert Hall, Stanford, CA, U.S.A. (2013)
- Radio France Concert Hall, Paris, France (2014)
- Shanghai Symphony Concert Hall, Shanghai, China (2014)
- Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Hall, Katowice, Poland (2014)
- La Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2014)
- Philharmonie de Paris. Paris, France (2015)
- Chapman University Center for the Arts, Orange, CA, U.S.A. (2016)
- Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany (2017)
- Pierre Boulez Hall at the Barenboim-Saïd Akademie, Berlin, Germany (2017)
- La Seine Musicale, Boulogne, France (2017)
- Moscow Philharmonic Concert Hall, Moscow, Russia (2018)
- Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, La Jolla, CA, USA (2019)