Marina Akamatsu is a Japanese-Canadian-American conductor currently based in Montréal. She has completed her master’s in orchestral conducting with Mélanie Léonard at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, generously funded by the Graduate Excellence Scholarship, while additionally studying with Matthew Sheppard. She is currently a member of Orchestre Métropolitain’s Conducting Academy under the mentorship of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She recently served as assistant conductor to Tania Miller with the National Academy Orchestra at the Brott Music Festival in 2026, serving the musical community of Hamilton, ON. Prior to this, she served as the assistant conductor for the PRISMA Festival Orchestra and Arthur Arnold.
Born and raised in the Chicago area, Marina began her musical studies with piano at a young age before pivoting to viola. Her involvement and passion within the symphonic setting as a violist soon spread to conducting. She studied conducting with Dr. Alexander Jiménez at Florida State University while earning her bachelor’s in viola performance with Dr. Pamela Ryan.
In 2021, Marina founded the Cawthon String Orchestra, which remains a flourishing ensemble today. Over her four-year tenure with the ensemble, she programmed a diverse swath of repertoire, created concerto opportunities for young soloists, and performed several world premieres. An avid enthusiast of new music and promoting young composers, she has conducted for the New Music Seminar and the Society of Composers Incorporated.
As a violist, Marina was the violist of the Know Any Piano Quartet at Florida State University for several years and remains an active violist to this day, recently performing at the 50th International Viola Congress in Paris representing the Canadian Viola Society.
Marina is keen to cultivate similar environments where instrumentalists feel empowered through progressive programming and multi-genre collaborations. Marina currently conducts performances at McGill University and throughout the city of Montreal and plays her viola wherever it takes her.
