Famous Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa dies at 88

Chinese-born Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa died Tuesday at his home in Tokyo at the age of 88. He was one of the most charismatic musicians in the world.

Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Boston and even Vienna: the hands of Seiji Ozawa have guided thousands of exceptional musicians and delighted the ears of classical music lovers around the world. The man who led his orchestra with or without a baton died on Tuesday February 6 of heart failure. His death was announced by his son daily Asahi Shimbun who also reveals that his funeral has already taken place in the presence of his loved ones. Several Japanese media including public television NHK also reported his death on Friday February 9.

Seiji Ozawa was born in 1935 in the Chinese province of Manchuria. Although the fracture of two fingers that occurred during a rugby game prevented him from becoming a pianist, nothing distracted the young Japanese from music. A student of the conductor Hideo Saito, Seijo Ozawa learned in Tokyo all the magic of German music and French music, to which he was particularly attached.

Japan, the United States and Vienna

The conductor quickly leaves his country. In 1959 he was in France, where he won the very prestigious first prize at the Besançon International Competition. It was there that he met Charles Munch, his main model with Herbert von Karajan, who was also close to him. From the 1960s, Seijo Ozawa began an American career and notably became an assistant at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra of composer Leonard Bernstein, during the 1961-1962 season.

After several orchestra directorships and when he was not yet 40 years old, Seiji Ozawa was entrusted with the position of musical director of the Boston Orchestra, a position he held from 1973 to 2002. He then installed his suitcases to the Vienna State Opera.

Music magician but also teacher, Seiji Ozawa founded in 2004 the International Music Academy of Switzerland, a non-profit school open to young musicians to teach them the practice of chamber music and the exercise of the orchestral form.

Throughout his career, the conductor has been keen to transmit and bring music to life throughout the world. He notably founded the Saito Kinen orchestra and gave birth to Ongaku Juku, a structure intended to introduce opera to Chinese and Japanese children. French music in the land of the rising sun.