Yoichi Sugiyama has been played on NTS in shows including Tafelmusik w/ Francesco Fusaro, featured first on 9 July 2023. Songs played include Adagio Is Beautiful.

Yoichi Sugiyama (born 1969 in Tokyo) studied conducting with Emilio Pomàrico and Morihiro Okabe and composition with Franco Donatoni, Sandro Gorli and Akira Miyoshi. He is active as a conductor and composer in Europe and Japan.

Since conducting Luigi Nono's opera Prometeo (with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra) in 2000, Sugiyama has appeared at major international festivals for contemporary music: Wien Modern, Festival d'Automne (Paris), Milano Musica, Verdi Festival (Parma), Settembre Musica and Suntory Summer Festival. He has worked with major orchestras and ensembles (including Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Arena di Verona, Tokyo Philarmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali Milano, Orchestra Friuli Venezia Giulia, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Izumi Sinfonietta, Orchestra Regionale Marchigiana, Orchestra Sinfonica della Repubblica di San Marino, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, Klangforum Wien, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, Remix Ensemble, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Alter Ego, Collegium Novum Zürich, Icarus Ensemble, Ensemble dell'Accademia della Scala, mdi ensemble).

Yoichi Sugiyama's compositions are performed at international festivals: Biennale di Venezia 2010 (Barcaruola II for ensemble), 2000 (Barcaruola I for viola and percussion, commissioned by Biennale di Venezia); Milano Musica (Ruscello nel lago, commissioned by Milano Musica 2009), Beyond the Frontier (commissioned by Milano Musica 2003); Tiroler Festspiele Erl 2000 (Intermezzo III for piano, commissioned by the Tiroler Festspiele Erl), Angelica Festival (Bologna), REC Festival d'Autunno and Takefu International Music Festival. His Divertimento I for ensemble (1997) is published by Casa Ricordi in Milan. In 2001 Sugiyama wrote the Divertimento II for Bruno Canino's piano duo. The performances are regularly broadcast by NHK-FM, RAI and ORF, among others.

In 2014 Sugiyama was awarded the Keizo Saji Prize of the Suntory Foundation for Arts for Last Interview from Africa (dedicated to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the catastrophe in Fukushima in 2011). In 1994, during a summer course with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Chigiana, he received the SIAE Prize (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori). He attended master classes and workshops by Luis de Pablo (Milan, 1996), György Ligeti (Novara, 1996), Adriano Guarnieri (Milan, 1996) and the London Sinfonietta (Tokyo, 1994).

Yoichi Sugiyama taught as an assistant in the composition courses of Franco Donatoni (1998) and Giacomo Manzoni (1999) in Tokyo. In 1995 he received a composition scholarship from the Italian government. Since then he has lived in Milan and teaches "Claudio Abbado" at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano.