Seiji Ozawa

Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who died in early February 2024 at the age of 88, was primarily known for his remarkable 29-year stewardship of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1973-2002). Born in 1935 in Mukden (now Shenyang) in Japanese-occupied China, Ozawa broke two fingers in an early rugby injury, necessitating a change from studying piano to conducting. He won the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors in 1959 and was awarded a scholarship to study with Herbert von Karajan, during which time he came to the attention of Leonard Bernstein, working as his assistant in New York during the early 1960s (making him the only conductor to have studied with both Karajan and Bernstein). Ozawa was music director of the Toronto and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras before his Boston appointment, and directed the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals. His repertoire focused on major orchestral works of the 19th and 20th centuries, along with new music by Dutilleux, György Ligeti, Andrzej Panufnik, Tōru Takemitsu, and others. Upon leaving Boston he became principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera until 2010. Despite subsequent ill-health, Ozawa returned to recording on acclaimed discs of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges with the Saito Kinen Orchestra (which he founded in 1984) and Beethoven piano concertos with Martha Argerich and the Mito Chamber Orchestra.