SEIJI OZAWA

"Ozawa, Seiji (b. Fenytien [now Shenyang, Liaoning, China], 1 Sept. 1935). Conductor. Studied at the Toho School in Tokyo, then conducted the NHK Orchestra and the Japan Philharmonic. Went to Europe and won the Besançon International Conductors' Competition. Following study at the Berkshire Music Center, where he won the Koussevitzky Prize, and with Karajan in Berlin, he became assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic under Bernstein (1961-65). Music director of the Ravinia Festival (1964-68) and of the Toronto Symphony (1965-69), then musical adviser to the Japan Philharmonic (1968). Music director of the San Francisco Symphony (1970-76); appointed artistic director of the Berkshire Music Festival in 1970. In 1972 he became music adviser of the Boston Symphony, and in 1973 was appointed music director of the orchestra. Has conducted opera companies at Salzburg, Covent Garden, La Scala, Vienna, and the Paris Opéra, where he conducted the premiere of Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise in 1983."