SEPTEMBER 1, 2010—HAPPY 75^TH BIRTHDAY SEIJI OZAWA!

SEIJI OZAWA FANS CAN SEND A BIRTHDAY GREETING TO MR. OZAWA AT THE BSO’S FACEBOOK PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/bostonsymphony

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO MUSIC FROM ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR RECORDINGS BY OZAWA AND THE BSO: “O FORTUNA” FROM ORFF’S CARMINA BURANA:

https://www.box.net/shared/oe5g6zc9nu

Please join the BSO in marking Seiji Ozawa’s 75^th birthday on Wednesday, September 1, 2010. Those who would like to wish Mr. Ozawa happy birthday can send a personal message through the BSO’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/bostonsymphony. Seiji Ozawa, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973-2002, currently holds the title of Music Director Laureate of the BSO.

Seiji Ozawa is one of the most acclaimed conductors in BSO history, leading the orchestra from 1973 to 2002. Through his many recordings, television appearances, awards, and worldwide touring, he is an internationally recognized celebrity. Since 2002, Ozawa has been the music director of the Vienna State Opera and a favored guest of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

He is also the Artistic Director and Founder of the Saito Kinen Festival and Saito Kinen Orchestra (SKO), the preeminent music and opera festival of Japan, as well as a new festival of opera, symphony concerts and chamber music called “Tokyo no Mori,” which had its first annual season in February 2005 in Tokyo.

Born in 1935 in Shenyang, China, Seiji Ozawa studied music from an early age, graduating with first prizes in both composition and conducting from Tokyo’s Toho School of Music. His relationship to Tanglewood dates back to 1960, when then-BSO conductor Charles Munch invited him to the festival after Ozawa won first prize at the International Competition of Orchestra Conductors.

While working with Herbert von Karajan in West Berlin, Ozawa came to the attention of Leonard Bernstein, who appointed him assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1961-62 season. Other appointments have included music directorships of the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, and the Ravinia Festival. Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, inaugurated in 1994, recognizes the conductor’s extraordinary achievement in the arts.

An comprehensive Ozawa/BSO discography is available at http://www.bso.org/images/pressreleases/OzawaBSOrecordings.pdf. Select Seiji Ozawa recordings with the BSO, as well as a wide selection of other BSO and Boston Pops recordings, are available at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s online store at www.bso.org/shop or for download at www.bostonpops.org/digital. A wide selection of current and archival BSO recordings can also be found online at iTunes, Amazon.com, and CD Baby, and at the Symphony Shop at Symphony Hall in Boston.

Mr. Ozawa is currently working at the Saito Kinen Festival in Masumoto, Japan, where he will lead the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra in the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for String Orchestra in C, on September 5,6,8, and 9. Due to some back pain caused by sciatica, Mr. Ozawa has had to curtail his originally scheduled program at the 2010 Saito Kinen Festival (www.saito-kinen.com).

In the 2010-11 season, Seiji Ozawa will act as Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall’s JapanNYC, a citywide festival in New York, which will explore the Japan of today, where newfound artistic sensibilities continue to transform and revitalize the cultural landscape. The cornerstones to the festival are provided by Maestro Ozawa himself, as he leads performances by the Saito Kinen Orchestra and the Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku (Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Orchestra). The festival will take place in December 2010, and continue in March and April 2011. Mr. Ozawa underwent treatment for esophageal cancer this past year.

Image – Chorus, and audience sang Happy Birthday to Seiji Ozawa in honor of his 75th birthday on Wednesday September 1 (Hilary Scott)

[If we hadn't been so intent on getting the September issue ready to go to press, this announcement would have been posted yesterday - ed]