An international bass-baritone who moved to Europe after completing graduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts and has since appeared in over 600 performances at European opera houses. 

Having honed his craft in Germany, France, and Belgium, he has performed numerous leading roles on the international stage.

Yoshiaki Kimura graduated from the Faculty of Music at Tokyo University of the Arts and completed his Master’s degree in Opera at the same university’s graduate school. In 2007, he moved to Germany, where he spent two years at the Opera Studio of the University of Music Karlsruhe. Subsequently, he graduated from the Soloist Course at the Conservatoire de Toulon in France and completed the Lieder Masterclass at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels in Belgium.

As a scholarship recipient of the Gotoh Memorial Foundation, he also studied and completed the Lieder program at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. Furthermore, as a scholar of the Rohm Music Foundation, he pursued and completed the Konzertexamen (German State Performance Certificate) course at the Trossingen University of Music, successfully obtaining the qualification. His studies were also supported by the Robus Foundation (Belgium), the Nomura Foundation, and the Moriya Scholarship Foundation. In 2021, he completed his doctoral studies at the Graduate School of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts, earning a Doctorate in Music. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Gift Global Association.

In 2011, he made his European debut after being selected from approximately 380 applicants to sing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro at the Bamberg Summer Festival—a prestigious gateway for young opera singers held every two years in Germany. The following year, he was again selected for the title role of Figaro for the Opera Avanti Festival held at the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie in Belgium.

In 2014, he returned to the role of Figaro at the National Theatre Mannheim. His performance received glowing reviews in the local press, which stated: “Yoshiaki Kimura, the Japanese singer in the lead role, was exceptionally outstanding among the cast. He portrayed a charming Figaro with brilliant, impeccable vocal prowess and beautiful pronunciation.”

From the 2011/12 season, as a member of the Flanders Opera Studio in Belgium, he performed the roles of Dulcamara in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, in addition to appearing in concerts and recitals at the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie. From the 2014/15 season, he entered into an exclusive soloist contract with Theater Bielefeld in Germany, performing in 60 opera productions annually.

His extensive repertoire includes roles such as:

Speaker (Die Zauberflöte)

Blansac (La scala di seta)

Banco (Macbeth)

Howard (Dog Days by David T. Little)

Dulcamara (L'elisir d'amore)

Kaspar (Der Freischütz)

Alberich (Das Rheingold)

Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro)

Cupid (Orpheus in the Underworld)

Mephistopheles (Faust)

Osmin (Die Entführung aus dem Serail)

Machiavelli (Egmont by Christian Jost)

Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia)

Fotis (The Greek Passion by Bohuslav Martinů)

For the 2025/26 season, he has been cast as Astradamors in György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.

Other notable appearances include the role of Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Hallwyl Festival in Switzerland (2018), and Klingsor in Wagner's Parsifal at the Richard Wagner Festival in Minden, Germany (2023). He has also made guest appearances at the National Theatre Mannheim and Landestheater Detmold. To date, his stage career in Europe exceeds 600 performances.