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CARNEGIEHALL PRESENTS
JapanNYC

SEIJI OZAWA CONDUCTS THE SAITO KINENORCHESTRA IN THREE CONCERTS
TO OPEN JapanNYC FESTIVAL AT CARNEGIE HALL, DECEMBER 14, 15, & 18

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida Performs Music by Beethoven in Program
To Include Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 and US Premiere of Carnegie Hall
Co-Commission by Composer Atsuhiko Gondai on December 14

Takemitsu’s November Steps for Biwa, Shakuhachi, and Orchestra
Featured on December 15 with Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique

Ozawa Leads Performance of Britten’s War Requiem on December 18;
Ozawa Returns to JapanNYC with Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku in April 2011 

JapanNYC , atwo-part citywide festival that celebrates the incredible diversity of Japanesearts and culture, launches at Carnegie Hall on December 14, 15, and 18 withthree concerts featuring the eminent Maestro Seiji Ozawa conducting the SaitoKinen Orchestra. Maestro Ozawa’s three programs with the Saito KinenOrchestra, which he co-founded in 1984 in honor of his late mentor Hideo Saito,range from works by composers for which he is known (Brahms, Berlioz, Britten)to Japanese orchestral works both old (Takemitsu’s November Steps) andnew (US premiere of a Carnegie Hall commission by Atsuhiko Gondai). Specialguest soloists during these three programs include pianist Mitsuko Uchida,biwa player Yukio Tanaka, shakuhachi player KifuMitsuhashi, soprano Christine Goerke, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey,and baritone Matthias Goerne.

JapanNYC, with more than 65 events at Carnegie Hall and New York Citypartner venues beginning in December 2010 and continuing in March-April 2011,explores the Japan of today, where artists embrace their country’s uniqueaesthetic sensibilities while continually revitalizing its cultural landscape.Led by Seiji Ozawa as the festival’s artistic director, JapanNYCexplores a country that values its long-standing cultural heritage while alsoembracing and transforming Western art forms in a spirit that very much looksahead.

For a complete JapanNYC festival press kit, click here. Visit carnegiehall.org/japannycfor the most up-to-date information on festival events, interviews withartists, videos, slideshows, and other content providing insight into Japan’sarts scene and JapanNYC festival offerings.

The Saito Kinen Orchestra was founded in 1984 by Maestro Ozawa and fellowconductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama to honor the 10th anniversary of the death of theirmentor, the influential musician and educator Hideo Saito. At the time of itsfounding, the orchestra comprised over 100 of Saito’s former students, and itgathered just once every year to pay tribute to him. Saito was a major figurein Japan, largely responsible for bringing Western classical music to thecountry. Rather than pursue a career in the West, Saito—a cellist and conductorwho studied in Germany in the 1920s and ’30s—returned home before World War II,determined to create a classical music tradition in Japan. Today, he is bestremembered for founding the Toho Gakuen School of Music, one of the country’sleading music institutions. Eighteen years after Saito’s death, the Saito Kinen(“Saito Memorial”) Orchestra became the cornerstone of Seiji Ozawa’s artisticdream to found Japan’s first international music festival, the Saito KinenFestival Matsumoto, held every August – September since its inception in 1992.The Saito Kinen Orchestra launches JapanNYC at Carnegie Hall with threeconcerts in December 2010—only its third appearance at Carnegie Hall and in NewYork since its 1991 debut, when it opened Carnegie Hall’s 101st season.

Maestro Ozawa and Saito Kinen Orchestra’s first program on Tuesday, December 14at 8:00 p.m. includes Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Ms. Uchida andBrahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C Minor. It also features the US premiere ofAtsuhiko Gondai’s Decathexis, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, whichreceived its world premiere at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto this pastSeptember. Gondai, who was born in 1965 in Tokyo and studied composition inJapan and Germany before a residency in Paris, lives and works in Kanazawa,Japan, and in Paris.

The following evening, on Wednesday, December 15 at 8:00 p.m., Maestro Ozawaand the orchestra perform Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and TōruTakemitsu’s November Steps for biwa, shakuhachi, andorchestra featuring Yukio Tanaka and Kifu Mitsuhashi as soloists. NovemberSteps was originally commissioned by the New York Philharmonic on theoccasion of its 125th anniversary in 1967, and the premiere was conducted byOzawa, then an assistant conductor under Leonard Bernstein at the orchestra. NovemberSteps marks Takemitsu’s first foray into combining the unique sound worldsof traditional Japanese instruments and the Western orchestra, something hewould continue to explore throughout his career. In December JapanNYCoffers a major tribute to the late Takemitsu, considered to be Japan’s greatestcomposer, with concerts at Carnegie Hall and Columbia University’s MillerTheatre, as well as a 19-movie series at Film Forum of films that the composerscored. For more details, click here.

For their final performance on Saturday, December 18 at 8:00 p.m., Mr. Ozawaand the Saito Kinen Orchestra perform Britten’s monumental War Requiem,a work of great personal meaning to Maestro Ozawa, which he has conducted manytimes throughout his career. The performance features soprano Christine Goerke,tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, baritone Matthias Goerne, the SKF Matsumoto Choir,SKF Matsumoto Children's Chorus, and the Ritsuyukai Choir.

Seiji Ozawa returns to Carnegie Hall and JapanNYC in April 2011,conducting another ensemble he founded, Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku (Seiji OzawaMusic Academy Orchestra) in its US debut performances (April 1 and 2). Foundedby Maestro Ozawa in 2000, the orchestra is comprised of talented youngmusicians who are given the opportunity to learn and perform both opera andorchestral music in Japan under the tutelage of world-class professionals.


About the Artists
Born in 1935 in Shenyang, China to Japanese parents, Seiji Ozawagraduated with first prizes in both composition and conducting from Tokyo'sToho School of Music. In 1959 he came to the attention of Charles Munch, thenthe Boston Symphony music director, who invited him to the Tanglewood MusicFestival, where he won the Koussevitzky Prize as outstanding student conductorin 1960. While a student of Herbet von Karajan he came to the attention ofLeonard Bernstein and was appointed Assistant Conductor of the New YorkPhilharmonic. Music Director of the Vienna State Opera since the 2002–2003season, Maestro Ozawa is an annual guest conductor of the Vienna PhilharmonicOrchestra and prior to his Vienna State Opera appointment he served as MusicDirector of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 seasons (1973–2002), thelongest serving music director in the orchestra's history.

Mr. Ozawa is also Artistic Director and Founder of the Saito Kinen Festival andSaito Kinen Orchestra (SKO), the pre-eminent music and opera festival of Japan.In 2000 he founded the Ozawa Ongaku-juku in Japan, an academy for aspiringyoung orchestral musicians where they play with pre-eminent professionalplayers in symphonic concerts and fully staged opera productions withinternational level casting. Since founding the Saito Kinen Orchestra in 1984,and its subsequent evolution into the Saito Kinen Festival in 1991, Ozawa hasdevoted himself increasingly to the growth and development of the Saito KinenOrchestra in Japan. With extensive recording projects, annual worldwide tours,and especially since the inception of the Saito Kinen Festival in the Japan"Alps' city of Matsumoto, he has built a world-class and world-renownedorchestra, dedicated in spirit, name, and accomplishment to the memory of histeacher at Tokyo's Toho School of Music, Hideo Saito, a revered figure in thecultivation of Western music and musical technique in Japan.

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida is renowned for her interpretations of Mozart,Schubert, and Beethoven, among others, both in the concert hall and on CD. Herrecording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and The ClevelandOrchestra won four awards, including the Gramophone Award for BestConcerto. Highlights this season include performances with the DresdenStaatskappelle and Sir Colin Davis, the Chicago Symphony and Ricardo Muti, atour of Japan with The Cleveland Orchestra, a European tour with theBayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, the first part of aBeethoven Concerti cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra (spanning twoseasons), a European and US solo recital tour, song recitals with IanBostridge, and concerts at the Salzburg Festival. Ms. Uchida was a CarnegieHall Perspectives artist over the course of the 2002–2003 and 2003–2004seasons. She records exclusively for Decca and has demonstrated a long-standingcommitment to the development of young musicians as a trustee of theBorletti-Buitoni Trust. She is also co-director, with Richard Goode, of theMarlboro Music Festival.

Biwa player Yukio Tanaka was born in Tokyo and studied biwawith Kinshi Tsuruta. Mr. Tanaka has performed Takemitsu’s November Stepsunder conductors including Hiroyuki Iwaki, Kent Nagano, Christoph Eschenbach,and Kees Bakels. A 1973 graduate of the 18th Japanese Traditional MusicPerformer Training Program, he has performed at the Louvre in the Paris AutumnFestival, and won first prize at the Biwagaku Concours. In 1993 Tanaka recordedNovember Steps with the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra conducted byHiroyuki Iwaki on laserdisc for use in teaching music appreciation in Japanesemiddle schools. A lecturer at Tokyo College of Music, he is also ExecutiveDirector of the Nihon Biwagaku Kyokai and Chairman of the Tsuruta SchoolKakushokai.

Shakuhachi player Kifu Mitsuhashi was born in 1950 in Tokyo andstudied the shakuhachi at the Kinko School with Sofu Sasaki, FukeShakuhachi, and Chikugai Okamoto. In 1991 Mr. Mitsuhasi performed as a soloistwith the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra at the Centennial CelebrationConcert of Carnegie Hall. For the 1992 Sony-released CD Chikurin Kitan,he received the 10th Kenzo Nakajima Music Award, the Agency for CulturalAffairs Artistic Work Award, and the Encouragement Prize at the YokohamaCultural Awards. Mr. Mitsuhashi has performed in Europe with the TokyoPhilharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kazushi Ono and received accoladesfor performances at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Soprano Christine Goerke has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, SanFrancisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera,New York City Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet,and La Scala among others, as well as at the Saito Kinen Festival. She hasreceived acclaim for her portrayals of the title roles in Norma and Iphigenieen Tauride and roles in Lohengrin, Fidelio, Die Fledermaus,Peter Grimes, Falstaff, and Dialogues des Carmelites. Ms.Goerke has also appeared with a number of the leading orchestras including theNew York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and ClevelandOrchestra, among others. Her recording of Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphonywith Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra won the 2003 Grammy Awardfor Best Classical Recording and Best Choral Performance.

Four-time Grammy Award-winning American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey hascaptured critical and popular acclaim on opera, concert, and recital stagesaround the world. He has performed leading roles at the great internationalopera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, SanFrancisco Opera, Glyndebourne, the Opera National de Paris, and the Teatro Comunaledi Firenze, to name a few. He is a regular guest of leading orchestrasincluding those in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Montreal, andToronto, as well as those abroad in London, Paris, Munich, Tokyo, Glasgow,Amsterdam, and Melbourne. He has also performed at numerous festivals includingTanglewood, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Saito Kinen, and the Proms. The 2010–2011season brings operatic appearances in the title role of Peter Grimeswith the Houston Grand Opera and as Lennie in Of Mice and Men with OperaAustralia.

Matthias Goerne is highly respected as a lieder singer and is afrequent guest at renowned festivals and prestigious venues including CarnegieHall and London’s Wigmore Hall. Esteemed pianists such as Pierre-LaurentAimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alfred Brendel, and Christoph Eschenbach are amonghis musical partners. From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Goerne will perform and recordsongs by Franz Schubert on eleven CDs for Harmonia Mundi, and venues around theworld will present a series of eleven Schubert recitals with him in comingseasons. He has performed at the Salzburg, Lucerne, and Saito Kinen festivalsand toured in recital in Europe, Brazil, the US, and Japan. Highlights ofrecent seasons include performances with the New York Philharmonic, SanFrancisco Symphony, and the Orchestre de Paris, among others.

The Saito Kinen Orchestra was founded in September of 1984 when SeijiOzawa and Kazuyoshi Akiyama organized a special concert series to commemoratethe 10th anniversary of Hideo Saito's death. Mentor to both of these well-knownconductors, Professor Saito is best remembered as co-founder of the Toho GakuenSchool, one of Japan's leading music institutions. Under the leadership ofOzawa and Akiyama, more than 100 of Professor Saito's former students assembledin Japan for that series of performances. By 1987 the orchestra had made theirfirst tour of Europe with concerts in Vienna, Berlin, London, Paris, andFrankfurt and in 1991 the orchestra made its US and Carnegie Hall debuts when theyopened Carnegie Hall’s 101st season. In 1992, the Saito Kinen Orchestra becamethe cornerstone ensemble of the new Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, held everyAugust and September. Highlights of recent season include additional tours ofEurope and performances led by Alan Gilbert, Robert Mann, and Junichi Hirokami,with esteemed soloists including Renée Fleming.


Program Information
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
SAITO KINEN ORCHESTRA
Seiji Ozawa, Director and Conductor
Mitsuko Uchida, Piano

ATSUHIKO GONDAI Decathexis (US Premiere, co-commissioned by CarnegieHall and Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37
JOHANNES BRAHMS Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68

This performance is sponsored by Nomura Holding America Inc.

Tickets: $36, $43, $54, $73, $98, $108
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
SAITO KINEN ORCHESTRA
Seiji Ozawa, Director and Conductor
Yukio Tanaka, Biwa
Kifu Mitsuhashi, Shakuhachi

TŌRU TAKEMITSU November Steps for Biwa, Shakuhachi, and Orchestra
HECTOR BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

Tickets: $36, $43, $54, $73, $98, $108
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Saturday, December 18, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
SAITO KINEN ORCHESTRA
Seiji Ozawa, Director and Conductor
Christine Goerke, Soprano
Anthony Dean Griffey, Tenor
Matthias Goerne, Baritone
SKF Matsumoto Choir
SKF Matsumoto Children's Chorus
Ritsuyukai Choir

BENJAMIN BRITTEN War Requiem, Op. 66

Sponsored in part by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

Sponsored in part by Toyota

This concert and the Choral Classics series are made possible, in part,by an endowment fund for choral music established by S. Donald Sussman inmemory of Judith Arron and Robert Shaw.

Tickets: $34, $40, $51, $68, $91, $100
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JapanNYC Lead Sponsors are Epson Corporation; Mizuho Securities USA Inc.;Nomura Holding America Inc. and Nomura America Foundation; Kotaro ONO, TheChairman of The ONO Group; Rohm Music Foundation; Sony Corporation; and YokoNagae Ceschina.

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

With additional funding from Aladdin Capital Holdings LLC; Asian CulturalCouncil; The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.; GWFF USA Inc.; ITOCHUInternational Inc.; J.C.C. Fund of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce andIndustry of New York; Kawasaki Good Times Foundation; The NY Mets Foundation;Nihon Unisys, Ltd.; Nippon Express Foundation, Inc.; Nippon Life InsuranceCompany; Hiroko Onoyama and Ken Sugawara; Seiko Instruments Inc.; Subaru ofAmerica, Inc.; and Sumitomo Corporation of America Foundation.

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; the Japan Foundation; andthe Consulate-General of Japan in New York.

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

Continental Airlines is the Official Airline of Carnegie Hall.