Mestro Seiji Ozawa Celebrates 80th Birthday

Seiji Ozawa turned 80 on September 1. A grandiose memorial concert was arranged by many well-wishers at Matsumoto's Kissei Culture Hall.

Eminent performers flocked to Matsumoto from all over the world to celebrate Ozawa's coming to the "Age of Umbrella (Sanju)", an Oriental tradition of celebrating 80th years of birth. All of them were participating for the sake of friendship to Ozawa. Among them were the world-renowned pianist Martha Argerich and the singer-songwriter James Taylor of "Before This World". Altogether 300 or so performers of the Saito Kinen Orchestra of which Ozawa was one of the founders, Ozawa's own orchestra for training young artists, the Seiji Ozawa Swiss International Academy, and choral groups.

The City of Matsumoto organizes "Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival" from August 9 through September 15. This is Ozawa's first concert since August 1 when he had his waist-bone broken and had to cancel the opera performances on August 24, 27, and 29.

The memorial concert tickets were sold out on the first day. An audience of 1,900 filled the concert hall, among them was the painter Hiroshi Senju, actress Kyoka Suzuki, writer Haruki Murakami, journalist Akira Ikegami and many other people of repute - to show how widely Ozawa is acquainted.

The concert started off with L. Bernstein's Candid Overture. Between the performances by Saito Kinen Orchestra was shown a video film to visually follow the footsteps of Maestro Seiji Ozawa.

There will be a change in the program for the concert slated for September 6 to meet the condition of the conductor:

Before: Brahms Symphony No.4 in E Minor Op. 98
After: Beethoven Symphony No.2 in D Major Op. 36

Enquiries should be addressed to Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival Executive Committee.