Studied under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, Yutaka Sado is the recipient of the Grand Prix of the 39th Besançon International Competition for Young Conductor in 1989, and the Grand Prix of the Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Music Competition in 1995. Sado's collaboration with Leonard Bernstein continued and was appointed as Conductor in Residence at the Pacific Music Festival inaugurated by the late Bernstein in 1990 in Sapporo, Japan.

Sado’s career outside Japan started in France, where he was Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris between 1993 and 2010. Yutaka Sado has guested with many of world’s leading ensembles including Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, the symphony orchestras of the BR, NDR, SWR and WDR broadcasters, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, RAI Torino, and National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC.

Yutaka Sado’s many-faceted musical achievements have been documented in more than 50 audio and visual recordings. Tonkunstler Orchestra Label has released over 15 CDs, in-house studio productions and live recordings from the Vienna Musikverein, including "Ein Heldenleben" and "Rosenkavalier-Suite" by Richard Strauss, Anton Bruckner’s Fourth, Eighth and Ninth Symphonies, Joseph Haydn’s The Creation, and orchestral works by Leonard Bernstein.