At the start of this month, Yoshikazu Fukumura took up the post of music director for the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, whose sound he describes as unique in Asia.
The 69-year-old native of Tokyo, considered something of a maverick in the classical music scene in Japan, moves to the new post after four years as the orchestra's regular conductor.
Filipinos love music and the orchestra makes "warm and bright music, which can never be emulated by other Asian orchestras," Fukumura said in a recent interview. "The performers have a sharpened sense of music and I feel great when conducting it."