Press Center

CARNEGIEHALL PRESENTS
JapanNYC

A TWO-PART CITYWIDE FESTIVAL LED BYARTISTIC DIRECTOR SEIJI OZAWA,
EXPLORING JAPAN’S ARTS AND CULTURE

Part I: December 2010
Part II: March–April 2011

Over 40 Events Throughout New York City at Carnegie Hall and Partner Venues
Celebrate Traditional and Contemporary Japanese Arts, Including
Music, Noh Theater, Dance, Taiko Drumming, Film, Manga, Art Exhibitions, andWorkshops

Musical Highlights Include Seiji Ozawa Leading Rare Overseas Concerts by the
Saito Kinen Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku,
Plus Tributes to Composer Tōru Takemitsu

Featured Artists Include Mitsuko Uchida, Midori, Masaaki Suzuki and
Bach Collegium Japan, NHK Symphony Orchestra and André Previn,
Toshiko Akiyoshi, Martha Graham Dance Company, Kodo Drummers,
Kashu-juku Noh Theater, Yoshitomo Nara, Eiko and Koma, and Many More

Extending Beyond New York: Carnegie Hall Continues West Coast Partnership with
Philharmonic Society of Orange County for Second Consecutive Year with
JapanOC Festival Presented in Southern California
at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa and Partner Venues 

(July 7, 2010, NEW YORK, NY)—This December, CarnegieHall launches JapanNYC, an ambitious two-part citywide festival,led by Artistic Director Seiji Ozawa, inviting audiences to explore theincredible diversity of Japanese arts and culture with more than 40 performancesand events at Carnegie Hall and New York City partner venues in December 2010and March–April 2011.

JapanNYC explores the world of Japan today, where artists embrace theircountry’s unique aesthetic sensibilities while continually revitalizing itscultural landscape. Led by Seiji Ozawa, one of Japan’s greatest culturalambassadors, the festival explores a country that values its long-standingcultural heritage while also embracing and transforming Western arts forms,with a spirit that very much looks ahead.

The JapanNYC schedule will feature concerts by some of the Japan’sfinest classical music artists, including cornerstone festival performances bytwo ensembles founded by Mr. Ozawa—the Saito Kinen Orchestra and the SeijiOzawa Ongaku-juku (Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Orchestra)—in rare overseasappearances. The line-up will also include noh theater, taiko drumming, dance,art exhibitions, manga and calligraphy workshops, traditional gagakuperformances, and many more musical offerings, including concerts featuring MitsukoUchida, Midori, Bach Collegium Japan with conductor MasaakiSuzuki, the NHK Symphony Orchestra led by André Previn, KodoDrummers, jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, shamisen players YutakaOyama and Masahiro Nitta, pianist Aimi Kobayashi, and more.

In addition to performances at Carnegie Hall, JapanNYC will extendthroughout New York City, thanks to partnerships with prestigious New Yorkcultural institutions, including Absolutely Live Entertainment and NewAudiences; Asia Society; Asian Contemporary Art Consortium; Baryshnikov ArtsCenter; Columbia University; Danspace Project; Film Forum; Japan Society; TheJuilliard School; The New York Public Library; The Noguchi Museum; The PaleyCenter for Media; Paul Szilard Productions and Martha Graham Center forContemporary Dance; and Works & Process at the Guggenheim. Free CarnegieHall Neighborhood Concerts at partner venues—Brooklyn Center for the PerformingArts; Abrons Art Center at Henry Street Settlement; LaGuardia Performing ArtsCenter; and Lehman Stages at Lehman College in the Bronx—will ensure that JapanNYCis accessible to all.

Extending beyond New York and following the success of its bicoastal AncientPaths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture in fall 2009,Carnegie Hall will continue its East Coast–West Coast partnership with thePhilharmonic Society of Orange County for a second consecutive year. Selectartists appearing in JapanNYC will also perform this season at SegerstromCenter for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, as part of JapanOC,a West Coast festival presented by the Philharmonic Society from October 2010through April 2011, thanks to the generous support of South Coast Plaza. JapanOCwill feature a variety of arts events and musical performances representing thevibrant expanse of traditional and contemporary Japanese culture, made possiblethrough collaborations with prominent Southern California culturalinstitutions.

With programming kicking off later this year, the festivals on both US coastswere planned to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the first overseas trademission from Japan to the United States and the ratification of the Treaty ofAmity and Commerce in 1860, saluting this milestone and special friendshipbetween two great nations.



JapanNYC Programming in New York City:
For a complete chronological listingof events, click here.

JapanNYC launches in December 2010 with Maestro Seiji Ozawaconducting three Carnegie Hall concerts by the Saito Kinen Orchestra,the prestigious Japanese ensemble that Mr. Ozawa founded in 1984 to honor thememory of his beloved teacher, the conductor and influential educator HideoSaito. The orchestra’s first Carnegie Hall performance, featuring pianist MitsukoUchida as soloist, also offers the US premiere of a new work, Decathexis,by one of Japan’s leading contemporary voices, composer Atsuhiko Gondai.Tōru Takemitsu’s November Steps, scored for traditional Japaneseinstruments and Western orchestra, will be heard on Saito Kinen’s secondprogram in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, alongside Berlioz’s Symphoniefantastique. Maestro Ozawa concludes his New York visit with the orchestraconducting Britten’s War Requiem, a work that has become a core part ofhis repertoire and that has great personal meaning to him.

The festival will pay tribute to the late Tōru Takemitsu—considered bymany to be Japan’s greatest composer, and also a close colleague of Mr.Ozawa—with December performances on three consecutive evenings as well as a filmseries celebrating the composer’s movie scores. Complementing Saito Kinen’sperformance of Takemitsu’s November Steps at Carnegie Hall will be aconcert of traditional and innovative works presented by the Institute forMedieval Japanese Studies at Columbia University and performed by eminentmasters of Japanese hogaku instruments, such as the biwa and shakuhachi,which were frequently utilized by Takemitsu in his compositions. The nextnight, a Zankel Hall performance curated by the composer’s daughter MakiTakemitsu features improvisations on Takemitsu’s film music by such acclaimedartists as guitarists Kazumi Watanabe and Daisuke Suzuki,accordionist coba, and percussionist Tomohiro Yahiro. Roundingout the tribute, earlier in December, Film Forum will present TAKEMITSU,a 14-day festival of movies scored by the composer, including MasakiKobayashi’s Hara Kiri (1962), Hiroshi Teshighara’s Woman of the Dunes(1964), and Akira Kurosawa’s Ran (1985).

Surrounding the December 2010 musical performances will be a variety of fallexhibitions, workshops, and theater, including manga and calligraphyworkshops for young people presented by the New York Public Library; theatricalperformances of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf as part of the Works& Process series at the Guggenheim, performed by the Juilliard Ensembleand George Manahan with narration by Isaac Mizrahi and aninstallation inspired by Japanese anime featuring a visual concept by artist ReiSato from Takashi Murakami’s Kaikai Kiki Co studio; and exhibitions ofJapanese visual art throughout New York City. Fall/winter 2010 exhibitionswill focus on works by renowned artist Yoshitomo Nara at the AsiaSociety, Zen master Hakuin Ekaku at Japan Society, and the greatartist/designer Isamu Noguchi and his contemporaries at The NoguchiMuseum.

JapanNYC returns in March and April 2011 with three weeks ofevents across New York City, including performances of classical, jazz, andtraditional Japanese music; contemporary theater and visual art; noh and kyogenplays; modern dance; film; and more.

A major spring highlight will be two rare overseas performances by the SeijiOzawa Ongaku-juku (Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Orchestra), with programsmarking the ensemble’s US debut. Founded by Mr. Ozawa in 2000, the orchestra iscomprised of talented young musicians who are given the opportunity to learnand perform both opera and orchestral music under the tutelage of world-classprofessionals. For JapanNYC, Mr. Ozawa will bring this gifted youngorchestra to Carnegie Hall for a concert performance of Mozart’s opera Lenozze di Figaro as well as an orchestral program to include Ravel’s MotherGoose Suite and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist MarthaArgerich.

Exciting JapanNYC Carnegie Hall presentations will also include:violinist Midori in two performances—a solo recital and chamber musicprogram; a concert by the NHK Symphony Orchestra, joined by PrincipalGuest Conductor André Previn and soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa; andBach’s Mass in B Minor performed by Japan’s premier period instrument ensemble BachCollegium Japan, led by its founder and Artistic Director Masaaki Suzuki.Also at Carnegie Hall: a Zankel Hall program featuring jazz pianist/composer ToshikoAkiyoshi; traditional Japanese folk music with shamisen players YutakaOyama and Masahiro Nitta; and the New York recital debut ofclassical pianist Aimi Kobayashi.

Spring 2011 JapanNYC musical highlights across New York City willinclude a performance of gagaku—traditional Japanese court music thatdates back more than 1,000 years—featuring the Columbia Gagaku InstrumentalEnsemble at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. In addition, theacclaimed Kodo Drummers will perform at Avery Fisher Hall in a concertpresented by Absolutely Live Entertainment and New Audiences. Also at LincolnCenter, The Juilliard School will present two JapanNYC concerts at AliceTully Hall, one by the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble, performingceremonial and ritual works by Japanese composers, and one by the NewJuilliard Ensemble, led by Music Director Joel Sachs, exploringmusic of the avant-garde after World War II.

Japan Society will contribute to JapanNYC in spring 2011 withpresentations of art and artists both past and present: performances by Kashu-jukuNoh Theater, traditional Japanese theater with a 600-year history; and Bye-ByeKitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art, anexhibition featuring 16 groundbreaking Japanese visual artists.

Other fascinating JapanNYC partner events in the spring: the annual AsianContemporary Art Week (ACAW) in mid-March will connect leading New Yorkgalleries and museums in a citywide event of public programs, exhibitions,receptions, lectures, artist conversations, performances, and more. The BaryshnikovArts Center (BAC) in partnership with Asia Society will present TheWind-Up Bird Chronicle, a multimedia play based on a novel by the greatJapanese writer Haruki Murakami. BAC will also partner with Danspace to presentEiko and Koma: The Retrospective Project, celebrating 30 years ofthe pioneering modern dancers/choreographers’ work with film screenings, liveperformances, workshops, and panel discussions. In Isamu Noguchi and MarthaGraham: A Legendary Collaboration, in the Rose Theater at Frederick P. RoseHall, the Martha Graham Dance Company performs a program that includesthree works all featuring set designs by famed Japanese-American artist IsamuNoguchi.

Film Forum will present Japanese Divas, a series of filmsspotlighting five legendary actresses—Setsuko Hara, Machiko Kyo, HidekoTakamine, Ayako Wakao, and Isuzu Yamada—from the golden age of Japanese cinema,including some films previously unseen in the US. The Paley Center will presentA Window On Japan, highlighting arts and culture films aboutJapan from its collection, including a Special Family Screening day anda second day featuring Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic inJapan (1962), Béjart’s Kabuki Ballet (1986), and Ode to Joy:10,000 Voices Resound (2002).

Four free Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts, presented in the springby Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in community venues throughout NewYork City, will invite audiences to experience a diverse range of Japaneseartists, including performances by taiko drumming group Soh Daiko; shamisenplayers Yutaka Oyama & Masahiro Nitta; and the Line C3Percussion Group in a program called Percussion in Tokyo & New York.

Tied to JapanNYC, Carnegie Hall will also launch a special web site inthe fall: carnegiehall.org/japannyc. This onlinecompanion site will feature the most up-to-date information on festival events,interviews with artists, and content providing insight into Japan’s arts sceneand JapanNYC festival offerings.


JapanOC Programming in Costa Mesa, California:

The West Coast edition of thefestival—JapanOC—presented by the Philharmonic Society of OrangeCounty at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, and at thevenues of Southern California artistic partners, will open in October 2010 witha mesmerizing performance of butoh dance by Sankai Juku (October30). JapanOC will continue through April 2011 with musical offerings atSegerstrom Center for the Arts to include Gustavo Dudamel with the LosAngeles Philharmonic performing Takemitsu’s Requiem (March 5);violinist Midori in recital (March 9); Japanese gagaku, part of aprogram highlighting the traditional music heritage of Japan (March 19);ukulele player/composer Jake Shimabukuro with the Ukulele Orchestraof Great Britain (March 24); an evening of jazz with pianist/composer ToshikoAkiyoshi (April 11); and the Tokyo String Quartet (April 19). Thefestival will also consist of a four-day residency by the Martha GrahamDance Company, with performances featuring sets by artist/designer IsamuNoguchi (February 24-27), as well as special tributes to Japanese composer TōruTakemitsu and Noguchi.

In addition to performances presented by the Philharmonic Society, JapanOCwill feature collaborations with a variety of prestigious Southern Californiacultural institutions, including a wide range of music, plus theater, dance,film, visual art, and education activities. For more details and updated WestCoast festival information in coming months, please visit philharmonicsociety.org/JapanOC.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts encompasses South Coast Repertory Theater; Renéeand Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened in 2006; an arts plaza whichfeatures the Richard Serra sculpture, Connector; and the future home ofthe Orange County Museum of Art, which is expected to open in 2016.

* * * *

JapanNYC Lead Sponsors are Epson Corporation; Mizuho Securities U.S.A.Inc.; Nomura Holding America Inc. and Nomura America Foundation; SonyCorporation; and Yoko Nagae Ceschina.

Supporting Sponsors are Deloitte LLP; Mitsubishi International Corporation;Suntory Holdings Limited and Suntory Hall; Takeda Pharmaceutical CompanyLimited; and Toshiba Corporation.

With additional funding from the Asian Cultural Council; GWFF USA Inc.; NipponLife Insurance Company; Seiko Instruments Inc.; and Subaru of America, Inc.

With special thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts; the Ministry ofForeign Affairs of Japan; the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan; JapanTourism Agency; Japan National Tourism Organization; and the Japan Foundation.

The Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series is sponsored by Target.

The West Coast edition of the festival—JapanOC—is presented with thesupport of South Coast Plaza.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall. 

#

For a complete Carnegie Hall 2010–2011 season press kit, please visit media.carnegiehall.org.

For high resolution images of featured artists, please contact the Carnegie HallPublic

Relations Office at 212-903-9750 or publicrelations@carnegiehall.org.