[Seiji Ozawa]

An exuberant collection of press photography documenting the long and impressive career of the renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa, who has led some of the most well known orchestras in major cities across the United States. Included are scores of images of Ozawa, baton in hand, employing his signature energetic, athletic style of conducting. There are also formal headshots, candid portraits some formal shots from the early part of his career, photographs of his wife Miki Irie, and more.

Seji Ozawa was born on September 1, 1935 in the city of Mukden, known today as Shenyang, during the Japanese occupation of Manchukuo. His family returned to Japan just before the dissolution of the empire and it was there where Ozawa began to study classic Western piano music under the guidance of Noboru Toyomasu. His bifurcate passions were piano and rugby until an injury on the field that caused two broken fingers led him to pursue orchestral conducting. Mentored by the cellist and conductor, Hideo Saito,

Ozawa studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. Just wo years after graduation, Ozawa’s career was launched after he won first prize at the 1959 International Competition of Orchestra Conductors in Besancon, France. He was invited by Charles Münch, one of the judges and Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the following year to the Berkshire Music Center where he would study with Münch and French conductor, Pierre Monteux. He won the coveted Koussevitzky Prize which allowed him exclusive pedagogical relationships with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein.

Ozawa has held a series of notable conducting positions such as at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1969, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from 1970 to 1976, the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 2002, and the Vienna State Opera from 2002 to 2010. He also served as the Assistant Conductor at the New York Philharmonic, Music Director of the Chicago Ravinia Festival, and collaborated with the China Central Symphony.

Beyond conducting, Ozawa has been involved in promoting music through the establishment of programs such as the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto in 1992, the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Opera Project in 2000/2009, and the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland in 2005. Ozawa is the recipient of countless awards, honors, and honorary degrees internationally. His 29 year tenure at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he won two Emmy Awards, remains the longest on record to this day. He returned to the stage in 2020 and 2022 to conduct his long-time favorite Beethoven symphonies.