Editorial: Loved by the music world, Seiji Ozawa paved way for young talent

World-renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa has passed away. He was 88 years old. Ozawa rose to global fame as a top-class conductor, paving the way for Asian musicians to excel in Europe and the U.S.

Ozawa started playing the piano at age 10 and studied conducting under Hideo Saito at Toho Gakuen School of Music. It was believed at the time that it was difficult for Asian people to truly understand and express the essence of Western music.

In 1959, Ozawa boarded a freight ship with his scooter to go to France. He wrote in his essay that to play music of foreign origin, “I wanted to learn firsthand about the land in which that music was born and the people who lived there.” With that kind of unwavering energy, Ozawa seized an opportunity.

After winning the top prize at the Besancon International Competition for Young Conductors, Ozawa’s talent was recognized by two maestros: Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. For 29 years from 1973, Ozawa served as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and assumed directorship at the Vienna State Opera in 2002 like a true trailblazer.

In a talk with late writer and Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe, Ozawa said he was “conducting an experiment to see how much an Asian person can do.” “It’s an experiment to see how much I can understand and how far I can go before I die.”

The addition of a Japanese conductor with extraordinary talent has expanded the world of classical music. And Ozawa didn’t make all this possible just because he was blessed with musical talent and hard work. His personality, sometimes referred to as “mischievous,” must have played a major part in why he was loved by so many.

Ozawa also poured his energy into training orchestras in Japan. He raised the level of the Saito Kinen Orchestra — named after his teacher — to world class, allowing a music festival to take roots in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, where the orchestra is based. He continued educating younger generations through the string quartet and opera.

More than a half century has passed since Ozawa’s first journey to France, and a number of young Japanese musicians are following Ozawa’s footsteps and excelling abroad, such as conductor Nodoka Okisawa and pianist Mao Fujita.

Kyohei Sorita, who came in second in the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition, says his dream is to create a music school in Japan which can attract international students.

Ozawa used to say, “Music has no borders.” It connects people beyond the barriers of nationality or language. Today, the power of music that Ozawa believed in is being tested.