While still in his twenties, he made his first appearances in Canada's Toronto International Guitar Festival and gave a solo recital in the Musikverein (Grosser Saal) in Vienna, he also performed in the US and UK.
The high point of the concerts was Castelnuovo-Tedesco's 24 Caprichos de Goya in a single performance.
In addition to solo performances, Yamashita also plays duo, as well as with chamber music ensembles, orchestras and internationally acclaimed artists, such as Leonard Slatkin with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Antoni Ros Marbà, Garcia Navarro, Pedro Halffter, Hiroyuki Iwaki, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta de la RTVE, Claudio Scimone e I Solisti Veneti, James Galway (flute), Gary Karr (double bass), Michala Petri (recorder), The Tokyo String Quartet etc.
This quartet, consisting of Yamashita and his children, has performed at two international festivals in Italy, the Seoul Art Center in Korea, Portugal, Cordoba Festival in Spain, San Francisco Herbst Theatre and several cities throughout Japan.
Yamashita has made a total of 83 recordings and numerous original arrangements of such works as Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Firebird, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Dvořák's Symphony from the New World.
Bach's sonatas and partitas for violin, cello, lute and flute (BWV 995–1013), all which he himself transcribed for the guitar.
[3] Yamashita is an enthusiastic proponent of new works for the guitar and has given the world premier of more than 60 new compositions.
In this regard, his world premier and presentation of the works of the Japanese composer Keiko Fujiie, his wife, is notable.
Yamashita's early arrangements of Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, Dvořák's New World Symphony no.
9 in E Minor, and others, broke boundaries in terms of solo guitar expression and virtuosity.
This recalls a bygone era of both the East and the West when such music was known and valued and whose echoes can still be heard in the classic 11th century novel "The Tale of Genji."
In 2010, his younger son joined them and they were renamed "Kazuhito Yamashita Family Guitar Quintet."
Giuliani,Vivaldi and Carulli played with Chamber orchestra of Leos Janacek (Nov.1984)[RVC]RCCD-1038 [BMG]5914-2-RC 18.
Tansman & Ponce (Jan.1986)[RVC]R32C-1032 21. Pegasus Effect - Tadaaki Otaka (con.
C-Tedesco: 3 Guitar Concertos with Leonard Slatkin (Con), London po.
Mozart Opera Arias / Kazuhito & Naoko Yamashita Guitar Duo (Aug.1991) [CROWN]CRCC-10, CRCC-8008 51.
Yamashita and Claudio Scimone & I SOLISTI VENETI plays Giuliani and Vivaldi (April 1994) [Sony]BVCC-692 57.
Rediscovered 1979 Recording, Invocation et dance (Rodrigo), Passacalia (Roncalli), Fandanguillo (Turina), Homenaje a la guitarra (Sainz de la Maza), Scherzino Mexicano (Ponce), Fandango (Rodrigo) Rec.
Little Girls’ Beautiful Lives / Koyumi + Kazuhito Yamashita (September 2005) [brinriniri] KYBR-0701 77.
Kazuhito and Koyumi Yamashita Guitar Duo (Sor, Granados, Villa-Lobos, Vivaldi, Falla, Leonhard von Call, Anónimo, Daragh Black Hynes) (2017) [brinrinri] KYBR-1701 81.