| Seiji
Ozawa (Conductor) |
 Born
in 1935 in Shenyang, 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 Toho School of Music, graduating with
first prizes in composition and conducting.
In 1959 he won first prize at the International Competition of Orchestra Conductors
held in Besançon, France, and was invited to Tanglewood by Charles Münch,
then Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a judge at the competition.
In 1960 Ozawa won the Tanglewood Music Center's highest honor, the Koussevitzky
Prize for outstanding student conductor.
While a student of Herbert von Karajan in West Berlin, Ozawa came to the attention
of Leonard Bernstein. He was appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic
for the 1961-62 season. He was Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's
Ravinia Festival for five summers beginning in 1964. Ozawa also took the post
of Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for four seasons.
Ozawa was Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1970 to 1976, followed
by a year as that orchestra's Music Adviser. He first conducted the Boston Symphony
Orchestra in Symphony Hall in January, 1968. From 1970 he was designated Artistic
Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Festival for four summers.
Following a year as the Music Adviser of the orchestra, Seiji Ozawa was named
the 13th Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1973.
With the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ozawa conducted many concerts in Europe,
Asia and throughout the United States, strengthening the orchestra's international
reputation.
In late April, 2002, Seiji Ozawa conducted performances of Mahler's Symphony
No.9 in Boston, bringing to a close a tenure of twenty-nine years as Music Director
of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In fall, 2002, he assumed the post of Music
Director of the Vienna State Opera. Preceding this, on January 1, 2002, Seiji
Ozawa became the first Japanese conductor in history to appear on the podium
for the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year Concert. This concert was broadcast in
65 countries, receiving acclaim from audiences around the world. The live recording
was then released with unprecedented speed and has become a phenomenon, rising
on the Pop Music chart rankings and hitting record-breaking Classical Music CD
sales, receiving a Platinum Disk Award in the Orchestra's home country of Austria,
and a Classic of the Year Award at the 16th Nihon Gold Disk Award in Japan.
In March 1979, he and the Orchestra made a historic visit to China, becoming
the first American performing ensemble to visit China since the establishment
of diplomatic relations.
Ozawa maintains an active international career, appearing regularly with many
orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, and often leading European and
Japan tours with the Vienna Philharmonic. His operatic credits include several
appearances receiving great response at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Milan,
l'Opéra National de Paris, among others. In 1983 he conducted the world
premiere of Olivier Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise at l'Opéra National
de Paris.
In 1984, Seiji Ozawa and Kazuyoshi Akiyama formed an orchestra whose purpose
was to perform in commemoration of the late Japanese music educator, Hideo Saito.
This orchestra, the Saito Kinen Orchestra, formally embarked on a path to greatness
in 1987 that has since become legendary. In 1992, the orchestra became the focus
of Ozawa's artistic dream to be Japan's first international music festival: the
Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto. The Festival, which has been held every September
since it's commencement in 1992, has drawn the enthusiastic attention of the
music world both at home and abroad.
In 1998 Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra joined forces with l'Opéra
National de Paris to produce Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites
at the Festival, then mounted the same production at l'Opéra National
de Paris in November of 1999. In the same year at the Festival, with director
Robert Lepage, Berlioz's Opera, La Damnation de Faust was presented and highly
praised. In December 1999 and January of 2000, Seiji Ozawa conducted the Saito
Kinen Orchestra in performances of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony in Matsumoto
as well as Tokyo to a resoundingly positive response, the energy of which has
been captured on a live audio recording. The acclaimed conductor took the Saito
Kinen Orchestra to Europe for performance tours in
1989, 1990, 1994, 1997, plus a 1991 tour of both Europe and the United States,
and a 2001 tour of the United States. In May 2004, Seiji Ozawa led the Saito
Kinen Orchestra on a highly successful European Tour, performing in a total of
6 cities throughout Europe (Valencia, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London, and Milan).
Seiji Ozawa's activities have earned him France's esteemed honor, Chevalier de
la Legion d'Honneur (1998), an Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University (2000),
membership in the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l'Institut de France (October
2001), and in November 2001, recognition from Japan for his outstanding cultural
contributions to the country. He received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science
and Art, First Class, from Austrian President Thomas Klestil (2002), the Mainichi
Art Award and Suntory Music Prize (2003), and in March 2004, received an Honorary
Doctorate from the Sorbonne University of France.
2000 marked the beginning of "Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku Opera Project," designed
as an educational program for young musicians. The first six of its productions,
Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, J. Strauss
II' s Die Fledermaus, Puccini’s La Bohème and Rossini’s Il
Barbiere di Siviglia received popular attention from audiences and critics for
the way in which the progress of young musicians was achieved. In addition to
these projects, Seiji Ozawa continues to perform on a regular basis with the
New Japan Philharmonic, an orchestra with which he has worked closely since its
founding, and once a year with the Mito Chamber Orchestra.
Seiji Ozawa conducted two comic operas, L'heure espagnole (Ravel) and Gianni
Schicchi (Puccini), in collaboration with l'Opéra National de Paris in
April 2003. The production, which was performed in Yokosuka, Kawaguchi and Tokyo,
was very successful and delighted the audience. The production was also performed
8 times from March to April 2004 at l'Opéra National de Paris.
(January 2006). |
| Mayumi Miyata (Sho) |
Mayumi Miyata is distinguished by being one of the first artists to bring the traditional Oriental instrument the SHO, to worldwide recognition. Through her virtuoso performances around the world, Ms. Miyata's artistry has helped expand awareness of the SHO both in Japan and overseas and she can be credited with making it widely recognized not only as a traditional instrument but one that has a valid place in contemporary music.
Having graduated from Kunitachi College of Music in piano, Ms. Miyata studied
'Gagaku', (Ancient Japanese Court Music), and in 1979 joined the Gagaku ensemble
at the National Theater of Japan. Since her debut Tokyo recital in 1983, she
has been active as a soloist and stunned audiences with her performances in
Paris, Amsterdam, Seattle, New York (Brooklyn Museum) and Milan (La Scala),
Vienna (Konzerthaus) and at festivals such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage,
Wien Modern, Octobre en Normandie, Darmstadt International Summer Course, Festival
Extasis (Geneva), Musica iva (Munich), Musik Aktive (Dortmund), Orleans International
Music Week and the Akiyoshidai International Contemporary Music Seminar & Festival.
Although the SHO has its origins in Gagaku, and it is this music with which it
is traditionally associated, Mayumi Miyata is highly acclaimed for her performances
of compositions by many of the world's leading contemporary composers. She
has worked particularly closely with John Cage, having performed the world
premiere of all of Cage's Two3 for SHO and Conch in Italy in 1992, and is also
associated with composers such as Toru Takemitsu, Toshio Hosokawa, Helmut Lachenmann,
Paul M³fano, Klaus Huber, Pierre-Yves Artaud, Zsigmond Szathmàry, Toshi Ichiyanagi,
Maki Ishii, and Joji Yuasa, having been invited to premiere many of their works.
Such highlights include major works such as Takemitsu's evocative Ceremonial-An
Autumn Ode- with Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra (subsequently
performed with Andr³ Previn and the New York Philharmonic, Michael Tilson Thomas
and PMF International Orchestra and again with Maestro Ozawa at the Tanglewood
Festival in 2004) and Hosokawa's Utsurohi Nagi performed with the WDR Symphony
Orchestra, Cologne. In 1997 Ms. Miyata participated in the tremendously successful
world premiere in Hamburg of Lachenmann's major operatic work The Little Match
Girl, which was followed by performances at the Staatstheater Stuttgart and
the Opera national de Paris.
Recent engagements include further performances of Utsurohi Nagi with Kazushi Ono and the Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie, of Ceremonial in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, Munich and Berlin with Charles Dutoit and the NHK Symphony Orchestra on their 2003 European Tour, a tour of Japan as guest soloist with the Czech Philharmonic and Vladimir Ashkenazy as well as with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg at the Baden Baden Festival. Additional to her performances with orchestras, Ms. Miyata is invited to major international festivals including those at Lucerne, Salzburg and the Festival d'automne de Paris and Avignon. In 2005 she was nominated as cultural ambassador by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and as such toured Europe giving concerts, workshops and collaborating with local artists and composers, promoting knowledge of the SHO overseas.
Highlights of Ms. Miyata's career include such diverse engagements as her performance of the Japanese National Anthem at the Opening Ceremony of the Nagano Winter Olympic Games and her work with Bjùrk on the soundtrack to Matthew Barney's film Drawing restraint 9, in which she appears playing her instrument.
|
| Mitsuko Uchida (Piano) |
 'Uchida is, simply, Uchida - an elegant, deeply musical interpreter who strikes an inspired balance of head and heart in everything she plays' Chicago Tribune
Mitsuko Uchida is a performer who brings to her audiences a deep insight into the music she plays through her own search for truth and beauty. She is renowned for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert, both in the concert hall and on CD, but she has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern and Boulez for a new generation of listeners and her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra won four awards, including The Gramophone Award for Best Concerto. Over the last two years she has been giving performances of Beethoven's last three piano sonatas and the Royal Festival Hall performance was described by John Allison, The Times critic, as 'one of the most transporting concerts London has heard all year'; and her peformance of the 'Hammerklavier' in the Royal Festival Hall in March 05 was described by Andrew Clements in The Guardian as 'totally compelling'.
Mitsuko Uchida performs throughout the world and with many different partners. She is Artist-in-Residence at the Cleveland Orchestra where she is directing all the Mozart concerti from the keyboard over a number of seasons. She also appears regularly with the Chicago and New York Philharmonic Orchestras and gives regular recitals in Carnegie Hall both as soloist and chamber musician. In 2004/5 she was the subject of Carnegie Hall's Perspective series.
During this coming season Mitsuko Uchida will feature in the Concertgebouw's Carte Blanche series where she will collaborate with Ian Bostridge, the Hagen Quartet, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as a performance of Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire with Barbara Sukowa. These concerts are also the focus of series at the Philharmonie in Cologne and the Barbican Hall in London. In January 2006 she takes part in the Mozart birthday celebrations in Salzburg with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ricardo Muti, as well as performing with the Hagen Quartet and appearing in recital.
Mitsuko Uchida records exclusively for Decca and her recordings include the complete Mozart piano sonatas and piano concerti; the complete Schubert piano sonatas; Debussy's Etudes; the five Beethoven piano concerti with Kurt Sanderling and, most recently, a CD of Mozart Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Mark Steinberg and Die Schöne Müllerin with Ian Bostridge for EMI.
Mitsuko Uchida has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to aiding the developmen of young musicians and is a trustee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. She is also Co-director, with Richard Goode, of the Marlboro Music Festival. |
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