Nagano: The Hokuto Bunka Hall in Nagano hosted the final performance of the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:10 JST, October 10, 2022

NAGANO — More than 3,000 elementary school students attended an orchestra concert for children, the final performance of the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival (OMF), at the Hokuto Bunka Hall in Nagano on Sept. 9.

The classical music festival, which opened in mid-August, attracted about 10,300 visitors over approximately one month.

About 3,100 students from 67 elementary schools in Nagano Prefecture were invited to the final concert, at which Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 was performed by the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Orchestra, founded by conductor Seiji Ozawa, 87.

Ozawa energetically attended concerts and rehearsals during this year’s festival. At a concert conducted by Charles Dutoit, his close friend aged 85, Ozawa appeared in a wheelchair and praised the performance by the Saito Kinen Orchestra.

The OMF also featured Mozart’s opera “Le nozze di Figaro,” which was conducted by Nodoka Okisawa, 35. In 2019, Okisawa won the Grand Prix at the Besancon International Competition for Young Conductors 2019, a competition also won by Ozawa.

At Matsumoto Castle in Matsumoto, a brass ensemble concert was held for the first time since 2005.

According to the OMF organization committee, the next edition of the festival will take place from Aug. 20 to Sept. 6, 2023.