Seiji Ozawa

Seiji Ozawa earned his reputation chiefly through a 29-year stint leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a run that ranked among the longest in American orchestral history. From the outset of his professional life he stood out for promoting new compositions, a stance that remained uncommon among leading U.S. conductors during his early decades.

Born on September 1, 1935, in Mukden—then part of Japanese-occupied northeastern China and now known as Shenyang—he began piano study at age seven. After the family resettled in Japan in 1944, his training intensified with concentrated attention on Bach. Hoping to become a concert pianist, he entered Tokyo’s Toho Gakuen School of Music, yet an injury sustained in a rugby match broke both index fingers and ended that path. Teacher Hideo Saito accompanied him to a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 (“Emperor”), an experience that redirected Ozawa toward conducting, an uncommon pursuit for Japanese musicians at the time. While still a student he led both the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Japan Philharmonic; once his Tokyo studies concluded, he traveled to Europe intending further training. For a period he earned a living selling motor scooters, yet in 1959 he spotted an announcement for the International Competition of Orchestra Conductors in Besançon, France, entered, and claimed the prize. Judge Charles Munch, then music director of the Boston Symphony, promptly invited him to Massachusetts for classes at the Tanglewood Summer Festival. Ozawa won the festival’s Koussevitsky Prize and received a scholarship for study in Berlin under Herbert von Karajan. During that stay he also drew the notice of Leonard Bernstein, who offered additional lessons and appointed him assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for two seasons.

From 1964 to 1968 Ozawa served as music director of Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. His first major orchestral appointment came in 1965 as music director of the Toronto Symphony, a post he held until 1969 and during which he championed and recorded works by Messiaen and Takemitsu that seldom appeared on major programs. That emphasis on contemporary repertoire deepened after he assumed leadership of the forward-looking San Francisco Symphony in 1970; he guided the ensemble on a European tour and remained until 1977. Returning to Tanglewood in 1970 as artistic advisor, he was named music director of the Boston Symphony in 1972—an appointment the orchestra made despite the relative scarcity of Japanese musicians in the United States and Ozawa’s youth of only 37. He simultaneously became artistic director of the Tanglewood Festival.

Even during his student years in Japan, Ozawa displayed a sometimes combative temperament that occasionally sparked disputes with players and administrators. The pattern persisted in Massachusetts, notably when he pursued a sweeping reorganization at Tanglewood in the 1990s that prompted several veteran faculty members to resign. His Boston tenure likewise generated controversy, especially in later years, yet its sheer length until 2002 remains unmatched by few others. That same year he became principal conductor at the Vienna State Opera, a role he filled until 2010 while maintaining ties to Tanglewood. In 2013 he paused his schedule for treatment of esophageal cancer but later resumed an active slate of recordings and guest engagements.

His discography exceeds 275 entries as of the early 2020s. Numerous releases with the Boston Symphony appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, RCA, and Philips, among other labels. Although he championed contemporary scores by both prominent and lesser-known composers and conducted Mahler, Stravinsky, and French repertoire with particular enthusiasm, his recordings also extended to works such as those of Gershwin. Into advanced age he continued issuing recordings, including a 2020 Decca release of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19, with pianist Martha Argerich, captured live several years earlier with Japan’s Mito Chamber Orchestra—an ensemble he had guided and frequently led since its founding in 1990. Among his many honors, the Kennedy Center Honors arrived in 2015. Ozawa died of heart failure in early February 2024.