Seiji Ozawa, World-renowned Conductor, Dies at 88 (Update 1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

19:15 JST, February 9, 2024

Seiji Ozawa, the world-renowned conductor who held the post of music director at both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Vienna State Opera, died on Tuesday of heart failure. He was 88.

Ozawa was born in 1935 in Manchuria, the present-day northeast region of China. He won first prize at the International Competition for Young Conductors in Besancon, France, in 1959, and later studied under famed Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan. In 1973, he became the first Japanese music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Ozawa also served as the director of the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Nagano Prefecture.