Renowned for his “extraordinary interpretations” (La Nación) and his “trademark good humour […] and great energy” (Bachtrack), Eiji Oue has conducted many of the world’s finest orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and the Munich Philharmonic. He is Conductor Laureate of both the Osaka Philharmonic, having served as its Music Director from 2003–2011, and the NDR Radio Philharmonic in Hanover, following an eleven-year tenure as Principal Conductor (1998–2009). Oue was also Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra (1995–2002) and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (2006–2010). As Music Director of Wyoming’s Grand Teton Music Festival (1997–2003), he was the driving force behind the founding of one of the festival’s most beloved traditions, the annual outdoor Fourth of July Community Concert.

Recent and forthcoming highlights include an extensive world tour celebrating the centenary of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra; a European tour with the National Taiwan Symphony; a cycle of Leonard Bernstein and American repertoire with the Wroclaw Philharmonic; and engagements at the renowned La Folle Journée festival in Warsaw. He has also appeared with the Tokyo Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Sapporo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Turin, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Bern Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Orquesta de València, Belgrade Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, São Paulo Symphony, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, RTÉ National Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colón.

Oue has recorded extensively with the Minnesota Orchestra in repertoire including Bernstein, Stravinsky, Mahler, Strauss, Copland, and Rachmaninov. With the NDR Hanover he has recorded works by Antheil, Martinů, Schnittke, and Strauss (including orchestral songs with soprano Michaela Kaune). For Deutsche Grammophon he recorded the violin concertos of Paganini and Spohr. His collaborators have included Sarah Chang, Hilary Hahn, Midori, Nemanja Radulović, Fazıl Say, Nelson Goerner, Emmanuel Ceysson, Nicolas Altstaedt, Stephen Kovacevich, David Fray, Roger Muraro, and Trio Jean Paul.

Passionate about music education and the next generation of musicians, Oue served as Professor of Conducting at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover from 2000 until 2025. His many honours include the 1980 Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood and both First Prize and the Hans Harin Gold Medal at the 1981 Salzburg Mozarteum conducting competitions. In 2005 he received the Praetorius Music Prize from the State of Lower Saxony, followed in 2009 by the Lower Saxony Order of Merit.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Oue began piano lessons at the age of four and later entered the Toho Gakuen School of Music, where he studied conducting with Hideo Saitō, teacher of Seiji Ozawa. In 1978, Maestro Ozawa invited him to study at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he met Leonard Bernstein, who became his long-time mentor and colleague. They shared the podium on three international tours with concerts at Teatro alla Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra de Paris, and in Moscow, St Petersburg, Berlin, Rome, and other musical capitals. In 1990 he assisted Bernstein in founding the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, serving as Resident Conductor of the Festival Orchestra.