Saito Kinen Orchestra
Saito Kinen Orchestra was founded in September 1984 when Seiji Ozawa and Kazuyoshi Akiyama organized a special concert series to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Hideo Saito’s death. Mentor to both of these well-known conductors, Professor Saito is best remembered as co-founder of the Toho Gakuen School of Music, one of Japan’s leading music institutions. Under the leadership of Mr. Ozawa and Mr. Akiyama, more than 100 of Professor Saito’s former students assembled in Japan for that original series of performances.
In 1987, Saito Kinen made its first official tour of Europe. Four years later, in 1991, the orchestra made its US debut at the opening concert of Carnegie Hall’s 101st season. The following year, Saito Kinen Orchestra became the centerpiece of Mr. Ozawa’s first annual Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, located in the Japanese Alps. Several years later, the festival featured special commemorative performances in tribute to Tōru Takemitsu—the spiritual pillar of the festival—after the composer’s death in 1996.
The Saito Kinen Orchestra concluded its series of Beethoven recordings in 2002 with the composer’s Ninth Symphony. In May 2004, the orchestra embarked on its seventh European tour.
Two years later, the festival celebrated its 15th anniversary and welcomed Alan Gilbert as guest conductor. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Takemitsu’s death, 2006 also featured a selection of the composer’s works in performances throughout the season. The following year, soprano Renée Fleming joined the Saito Kinen Orchestra for the world premiere of Henri Dutilleux’s Le temps l’horloge.
Seiji Ozawa
Born in 1935 in China to Japanese parents, Seiji Ozawa started piano lessons at an early age. After graduating from Seijo Junior High School in Tokyo, he studied conducting under the late Hideo Saito at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, graduating with first prizes in composition and conducting. In 1959, Mr. Ozawa won first prize at the International Competition for Orchestra Conductors and was invited to the Tanglewood Festival by Charles Münch. The following year, he won Tanglewood Music Center’s highest honor, the Koussevitzky Prize for outstanding student conductor.
While a student of Herbert von Karajan, Mr. Ozawa came to the attention of Leonard Bernstein and was appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic under Mr. Bernstein for the 1961–1962 season. In 1964, he became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Ravinia Festival, a position he held for five summers. That same year, Mr. Ozawa became the music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, where he stayed for four seasons.
Mr. Ozawa became the Tanglewood Festival’s artistic director in 1970; in December of that year, he accepted the post of conductor and music director of the San Francisco Symphony. He retired from San Francisco in 1976, but returned the following season as a music advisor. In 1973, Mr. Ozawa became the 13th music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he stayed for 29 years.
In 1984, Mr. Ozawa and Kazuyoshi Akiyama formed an orchestra to commemorate the late Japanese music educator, Hideo Saito. Saito Kinen Orchestra officially commenced its activities in 1987, and in 1992 became the cornerstone of Mr. Ozawa’s artistic dream to found Japan’s first international music festival: the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto.
Mr. Ozawa’s achievements have earned him an honorary doctorate from Harvard University; membership in the Académie des Beaux-Arts; the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class; the Suntory Music Prize; and Officier de la Légion d’Honneur. In 2008, the Emperor decorated him with the Order of Culture, Japan’s highest honor. In November 2011, he became the first Japanese to be granted honorary membership to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
The year 2000 marked the beginning of Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku (Seiji Ozawa Music Academy). Its productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Die Fledermaus, La bohème, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Carmen have received popular attention from audiences and critics impressed by the progress shown by the academy’s young musicians.
In addition, Mr. Ozawa continues to perform with the New Japan Philharmonic, an orchestra with which he has worked closely since its founding; and also advises the Mito Chamber Orchestra.
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