Seiji Ozawa, 88, a renowned conductor from Japan, passes away

Seiji Ozawa, 88, a renowned conductor from Japan, passes away

September 1, 2020, was designated as "Seiji Ozawa Day" in Boston, which led the gratified Ozawa to remark that Boston is his second home.

One of the most well-known orchestra directors of his period, Seiji Ozawa of Japan, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 88 from heart failure, the national broadcaster NHK said on Friday.

Seiji Ozawa, a well-known conductor, passed away at home in Tokyo from heart failure, according to his management office.

Despite spending decades in the elite ranks of orchestras throughout the globe, Chinese-born Ozawa wore a tie with a baseball motif to interviews and insisted on being addressed by his first name instead of "maestro."

His broad grin and bushy hair endeared him to audiences, particularly in the United States, where he spent over thirty years as the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

September 1, 2020, was designated as "Seiji Ozawa Day" in Boston, which led the gratified Ozawa to remark that Boston is his second home.

According to a quote, "That was a really important time in my life." "Whatever the circumstance where I go, Boston is a part of my heart."

Many years later, in Tokyo, the modest Ozawa would sometimes be seen on train stations donning the baseball team's jacket and cap and stopping to chat with fans.

In a 2014 press conference, he said, "I'm the exact opposite of a genius; I always have to make an effort."

"Although I truly don't like studying, I have to if I want to be a musician. Talented people can easily outperform me."

His time with the Vienna State Opera was marred by ill health, which included an oesophageal cancer diagnosis in 2010, the year he departed the company.

Later on, he had pneumonia and needed back surgery, which often prevented him from being active but did not lessen his zeal.

In a December 2013 interview with Reuters, Ozawa said, "I will keep doing everything I have always done, providing instruction and carrying the orchestra, until I die."

glancing forward

Ozawa said that studying music, conversing with friends like best-selling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, and having time to reflect were beneficial activities during his leisure time.

He said, "I was always looking ahead, because if you keep reminding what you've done in one day's concert, you can't prepare for the next," in an article published in 2014 in the newspaper Nikkei.

"I never gave the past any attention. Time was never enough for me."

Ozawa was born in 1935 in Shenyang, China, where his father, a dentist, had relocated. He was the third of four sons in the family. He traveled to Beijing later.

He was taken to church by his Christian mother, where they sang songs.She would carry it, and sometimes one of her brothers would play the accordion while the family sang at home.

I got into music because of that," he wrote later.

With only a few clothing, an album of drawings, and an accordion, the family returned to Japan in 1941, and Ozawa started studying piya.No. He started operating when he hurt his finger playing rugby and was unable to continue.

After traveling for two months by cargo ship throughout Europe in 1959, Ozawa made the decision to compete in the Besançon young conductor competition.

His victory opened doors for him all across the globe and allowed him to collaborate with legends like Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan.

After that, there were assignments in Singapore, San Francisco, and Toronto. He started a 29-year tenure as the Boston Symphony Orchestra's director in 1973.

An ardent sports enthusiast, Ozawa's allegiances were to the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots in football, and the Celtics in basketball.

Even though Ozawa spent a lot of time teaching—he offered monthly lessons for kids in Boston, and they all nicknamed him "seiji"—his true love was promoting classical music in Japan, where he worked as a summer music school teacher in the city of Matsumoto. arranged the ceremony. His first teacher was Hideo Saito.