Seiji Ozawa
Seiji Ozawa 1 September 1935 - 6 February 2024) was a leading Japanese symphonic orchestra conductor and educator who achieved international acclaim while leading the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. He founded the Saito Kinen Orchestra and was noted for his concerts in support of international peace at the Unitied Nations and in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. He received several international honors including: the Kennedy Center Honors, the Order of Culture and the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art.
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Quotes
[edit]- I disagree that politics and music must live together...music must remain neutral in order to stay alive as an art.
- Seiji Ozawa Merchant-Ivory Interviews, 28 September 2012 1977, University of Mississippi Press on Google Books
- "One does not need to raise a lot of money to put on a concert in a large hall in order to express one's beliefs [in peace].
- Seiji Ozawa Youshihara, Maric (28 September 2019), Dearest Lenny Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro, Oxford University Press - Seiji Ozawa quoted in Chapter 15 "A Summer of Prayer" , pp. 143-145.
- [W]hy have I decided to go to Hiroshima and Nagasaki this year in particular? Because I believe that the fortieth anniversary of the atomic bombing is an occasion to remind ourselves and appeal to the world of the seriousness of the issue of nuclear weapons to the future of humankind and of the tragic consequences it can bring. So I am not giving prayers only to those who were killed by the atomic bombs. In the real world there are many conflicts, not just war. Unless we strengthen our awareness about the importance of not letting those conflicts lead to atomic destruction, there is no way to know what will happen in the future.
- Seiji Ozawa Youshihara, Maric (28 September 2019), Dearest Lenny Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro, Oxford University Press - Seiji Ozawa quoted in Chapter 15 "A Summer of Prayer" , pp. 143-145.
- Fundamentally, I have a belief that I do not need to join a group in order to act. Even in religion, I believe that one can connect with God without going to church. Just like spiritual faith is not necessarily born out of listening to the minister in a church, one does not need to be part of a group in order to oppose nuclear weapons. Many Japanese people seem to think that one needs to be part of a group to get anything done. I think that is false. Plus, working in groups often leads to conflict over power.
- Seiji Ozawa Youshihara, Maric (28 September 2019), Dearest Lenny Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro, Oxford University Press - Seiji Ozawa quoted in Chapter 15 "A Summer of Prayer" , p. 145.
- We Japanese and other Asian people have our own special kind of sorrow. I think it comes from a slightly different place than Jewish sorrow or European sorrow. If you are willing to attempt to understand all of these mentalities, and make informed decisions after you do so, then the music will naturally open up for you. Which is to say that when an easterner performs music written by a westerner, it can have its own special meaning. I think it’s well worth the effort.
- Seiji Ozawa Murakami, Haruki (5 November 2015), Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa talk music, art and creativity, The Guardian - Quotation by Haruki Murakami during interview with Seiji Ozawa.
External links
[edit]
- Seiji Ozawa on IMDb
- Seiji Ozawa (Conductor) – Short Biography. Bach-cantatas.com.
- Seiji Ozawa – Photographs and video interviews on gettyimages.com