Seiji ozawa biography of barack

Japanese conductor (–)

Seiji Ozawa (小澤 征爾, Ozawa Seiji, September 1, – February 6, ) was a Japanese conductor known internationally for his work as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and especially the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), where he served from for 29 years. After conducting the Vienna New Year's Concert in , he was director of the Vienna State Opera until In Japan, he founded the Saito Kinen Orchestra in , their festival in , and the Tokyo Opera Nomori in

Ozawa rose to fame after he won the Besançon competition. He was invited by Charles Munch, then the music director of the BSO, for the following year to Tanglewood, the orchestra's summer home, where he studied with Munch and Pierre Monteux. Winning the festival's Koussevitzky Prize earned him a scholarship with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic and brought him to the attention of Leonard Bernstein, who made him his assistant with the New York Philharmonic in He became artistic director of the festival and education program in Tanglewood in , together with Gunther Schuller. In , the new main hall there was named after him.

Ozawa conducted world premieres such as György Ligeti's San Francisco Polyphony in and Olivier Messiaen's opera Saint François d'Assise in Paris in He received numerous international awards. Ozawa was the first Japanese conductor recognized internationally and the only one of superstar status.

Life and career

Early years

Ozawa was born on September 1, , to Japanese parents in the Japanese-occupied Manchurian city of Mukden, now known as Shenyang in China. He began piano lessons at age seven. When his family returned to Japan in , he began studying piano with Noboru Toyomasu, with a focus on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

After graduating from the Seijo Junior High School in , Ozawa broke two fingers in a rugby game. Hide

Seiji Ozawa, who served as Boston Symphony Orchestra music director for 29 years, died February 6 at the age of At the time of his death, Ozawa was the orchestra’s music director laureate.

In their statement announcing his passing, the BSO pointed to Ozawa’s importance for the orchestra and for classical music in the 20th century as a whole. Taking up his post in with an orchestra that at the time had a legacy as one of America’s finest ensembles, with a core repertoire of music from the romantic era, French composers, and a clutch of modern American works, Ozawa crafted a new presence and stature for the BSO. 

“Under Seiji Ozawa,” declared the orchestra, “the Boston Symphony entered a global era, through a renewed commitment to commissions and contemporary music, a prolific number of recordings, radio, and television appearances, and history-making tours.” While preserving the orchestra’s trademark beauty of sound, Ozawa added music from Olivier Messiaen, Henri Dutilleux, and Toru Takemitsu, producing memorable concerts and landmark recordings that included the world premiere of Messiaen’s monumental opera, St. Francis of Assisi.

Prior to his Boston appointment, Ozawa was music director of the Ravinia Festival, the CSO&#;s summer home, in the s. &#;The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family joins the music world in mourning the loss of Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who served as the first music director of the Ravinia Festival from until and as principal conductor for the season,&#; said the CSO in a released statement.

Ozawa was born September 1, , in Mukden in the Japanese-occupied puppet state of Manchuko in northern China. In Japan from , he studied piano and later, in music school, conducting (in part because a hand injury from playing sports effected his piano playing). He burst upon the scene in , in the middle of the era of the great maestros, by winning First Prize at the International Competition of Orchestra Conductors. The following

In Friday’s (2/9) New York Times, James R. Oestreich writes, “Seiji Ozawa, the high-spirited Japanese conductor who took the Western classical music world by storm in the s and ’70s and was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from to , died on Feb. 6 in Tokyo. He was The cause was heart failure, said a spokeswoman for the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland &#; With his mop of black hair, his boyish demeanor and his seemingly boundless energy, Mr. Ozawa captured the popular imagination early on. He found himself near the top of the American orchestral world in , when he was named music director of the Boston Symphony. He scored many successes over the years, proving especially adept at big, complex works &#; He left [Boston] in to become music director of the august Vienna State Opera, where he stayed until &#;. Seiji Ozawa was born to Japanese parents in Japanese-occupied Shenyang, China, on Sept. 1, (The family returned to Japan in )&#; He studied conducting under Hideo Saito, the pre-eminent teacher of Western music in Japan &#; In he traveled to Europe &#; He won a competition for orchestral conductors &#; and was invited &#; to study at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood &#; He studied with Herbert von Karajan in Berlin and &#; Leonard Bernstein appointed him an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic in &#;. In , he became artistic director of the Ravinia Festival in Illinois, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In ,” he was named music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, “and his career took off. He &#; was music director of the San Francisco Symphony from to &#;. [In ], he helped found the Saito Kinen Orchestra &#; This spawned the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto in ; the event was renamed the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in ”

To honor Ozawa, its music director laureate, the Boston Symphony Orchestra offered a spoken and musical tribute at the start of its performance on Friday afternoon,

It fills us with incredible sadness that Seiji Ozawa – one of the greatest musical minds of our time and ultimate master of sensuous sound – has passed away. His rich and lasting recording legacy on Deutsche Grammophon has spanned over half a century, featured leading orchestras across three continents and encompassed musical traditions as varied as the American, Austro-German, French and Russian schools.

Deutsche Grammophon President Dr. Clemens Trautmann comments in a personal note: “It was Seiji Ozawa’s legendary ballet recordings of “Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra that nurtured my musical passion as a child; and later as a music student Seiji Ozawa’s groundbreaking interpretations of then rarely performed works by Berlioz, Dutillieux, Fauré or Messiaen opened up an entirely new cosmos to me – like they did to a wide global audience of music lovers. The natural elegance and subtly glowing energy were palpable throughout all of his recordings and performances, even in the last few years when we were so privileged to celebrate Deutsche Grammophon’s th anniversary with Seiji Ozawa and his Saito Kinen Orchestra at Suntory Hall.

“The warmth, generosity and sense of humour that Seiji Ozawa radiated in personal encounters and conversations are among the most memorable experiences for anyone who had the pleasure to meet him, and he inspired so many young talents with his aura, advice and selfless support. He will be very much missed.”