Conductor Seiji Ozawa dies aged 88

Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa has died of heart failure aged 88, according to a statement released by his management. Ozawa ‘passed away peacefully’ at his home in Tokyo on 6 February. He is survived by his wife Miki Irie and two children.

Ozawa made history as the longest-running music director in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s (BSO) 128-year history. He was also the first Japanese conductor in history to appear on the podium for the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year Concert and was given honorary membership to the orchestra.

Vienna Philharmonic board member Professor Daniel Froschauer said [translated]: ‘We are happy to have experienced so many artistic highlights with Seiji Ozawa. It was a gift to be able to go on a long journey with this artist, who was characterized by the highest musical standards and at the same time humility towards the treasures of musical culture as well as his loving interaction with his colleagues and his charisma, which was also perceived by the audience. He left a great artistic legacy with the Vienna Philharmonic. We will sorely miss Seiji Ozawa as a friend and musical partner. Our thoughts are with his family.’

Born in China in 1935 to Japanese parents, Ozawa returned to Tokyo in 1944 and began his piano studies. After graduating from the Toho School of Music, Ozawa won first prize at the International Competition of Orchestra Conductors in 1959 and was invited to Tanglewood by competition judge Charles Münch. In 1960 Ozawa won the Tanglewood Music Center's Koussevitzky Prize for outstanding student conductor.

While studying in West Berlin, Ozawa caught the attention of Leonard Bernstein and was appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1961-62 season. He then became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Ravinia Festival, as well as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 1970 Ozawa became artistic director of the Tanglewood Festival and began his tenure as music director of the San Francisco Symphony.

In 1984, in partnership with Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Ozawa founded the Saito Kinen Orchestra which, in 1992, led him to launch Japan's first international music festival: the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto. The festival, since renamed the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, works closely with the orchestra of the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy which Ozawa created in 2004.

Among many accolades received during his lifetime, Ozawa has received the Austrian Cross of Honour, the Mainichi Art Award and Suntory Music Prize and the Order of Culture, the highest honour in Japan. In 2016, he received a Kennedy Center Honors in recognition of his ‘lifetime contribution to American culture through the performing arts’.