Concert Hall ATM
- Concert
- ORCHESTRA
Mito Chamber Orchestra
The 100th Regular ConcertConductor: Seiji Ozawa, Radek Baborák
October 13 (Fri), 2017 start 7:00 p.m. / October 15 (Sun), 2017 start 3:00 p.m.
Conductor: Radek Baborák (1 & 2 movement)
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa (3 & 4 movement)
Soprano: Rie Miyake
Mezzo Soprano: Mihoko Fujimura
Tenor: Kei Fukui
Baritone: Markus Eiche
Tokyo Opera Singers
[Program]
Beethoven: Symphony No.9 in D minor Op.125
[Orchestra Member]
■Violin: Syoko Aki, Taro Uemura, Machie Oguri, Takumi Kubota, Kyoko Saburi, Machiko Shimada, Kyoko Takezawa, Naoko Tanaka, Yasushi Toyoshima, Yuki Naoi, Shizuka Nakamura, Ryo Mikami, Masanobu Yoda
■Viola: Masao Kawasaki, Yoshiko Kawamoto, Tomomi Shinozaki, Mazumi Tanamura
■Cello: Noboru Kamimura, Sadao Harada, Ryosuke Hori, Dai Miyata
■Contrabass: Hiroshi Ikematsu, Ryu Sukegawa
■Flute: Shigenori Kudo, Kazuhiro Iwasa
■Piccolo: Maho Kajikawa
■Oboe: Philippe Tondre, Fusako Nampo
■Clarinet: Ricardo Morales, Hidehito Naka
■Bassoon: Dag Jensen, Masaru Yoshida
■Contrabassoon: Tomoko Kano
■Horn: Maro Abe, Yasushi Katsumata, Masayuki Naoi, Yuki Wakuda, Radek Baborák
■Trumpet: David Herzog, Mariko Wakabayashi
■Trombone: Mikio Nitta, Shinichi Go, Koichi Nonoshita
■Timpani: Satoshi Takeshima
■Percussion: Naoaki Kobayashi, Haruna Takeizumi, So Watanabe
～MCO100 Related Events～
◎Oct.12［Thu］10:40 Concert for Children
A concert for 5th grade elementary student in Mito City.
MCO will play extracts from Beethoven's Symphony No.9.
★500 general public will be invited to this concert.
◎Oct.12［Thu］Evening Public General Rehearsal
General Rehearsal of MCO will be opened to the local students.
★The pair whose age total sum is 100 will be invited to the general rehearsal (50 pairs, 100 people).
◎Oct.1［Sun］～15［Sun］ MCO Poster Exhibition
Place: Art Tower Mito Entrance Hall
More information → See ≫here
Outline
Venue
Concert Hall ATM
Dates
October 13 (Fri), 2017 start 7:00 p.m. / October 15 (Sun), 2017 start 3:00 p.m.
【Organized by】
Mito Arts Foundation
©Shintaro Shiratori
Seiji Ozawa
Conductor, 3rd and 4th movements
Born in Shenyang, China (then Mukden, Manchuria) in 1935, Ozawa studied conducting at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo in the 1950’s under Hideo Saito (1902-74). In 1959, he placed first in the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. After apprenticing under the tutelage of Herbert von Karajan (1908-89), he went on to serve as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein (1918-90). Thereafter, he successively served as musical director for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), among others. Since 1992 Ozawa has led the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, which was renamed the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in 2015. He has also been avidly instructing budding musicians at such places as the Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku. In 2011, he won the 23rd Praemium Imperiale in Honor of Prince Takamatsu, a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association. In 2015, he became the first-ever Japanese recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors award in the United States. In 2016, his recording of Ravel’s L’Enfant et Les Sortileges (“The Child and the Spells”), with the Saito Kinen Orchestra under his direction, won the Grammy award for best opera recording. Also, he was awarded honorary membership of the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) in 2010, and of the Berliner Philharmoniker (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) in 2015. In 2013, he became the new director general of Art Tower Mito (ATM), succeeding Hidekazu Yoshida (1913-2012), the first person to hold that position. Ozawa, who turns 82 in September, concurrently serves as music director for the Mito Chamber Orchestra (MCO), in which capacity he is involved in its management.
©Lucie Čermáková
Radek Baborák
Conductor, 1st and 2nd movements
Born in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in 1976, Baborák took first prize at the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD (ARD Music Competition) in 1994, where he captured the world’s attention as the “horn boy wonder.” Having performed actively in venues around the globe since then, he has come to forge strong bonds of trust with such first-rate conductors as Seiji Ozawa (b. 1935), Daniel Barenboim (b. 1942), and Simon Rattle (b. 1955). To date, he has served successively as horn soloist with the Česká filharmoni (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra), the Münchner Philharmoniker (Munich Philharmonic Orchestra), the Bamberger Symphoniker (Bamberg Symphony), and the Berliner Philharmoniker (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra). Hermann Baumann (b. 1934), the highly esteemed horn virtuoso, described Baborák’s playing with these words: “His performances transport us back to the festive mood of the 18th century. His charming, soft tone surpasses all others’ in the way it comfortably reaches our ears.” Baborák, in more recent years, has visibly stepped up his activities as conductor, and in that capacity has started a regular concert series and recording sessions with the Czech Sinfonietta, an ensemble that he founded. The 41-year-old has given countless guest performances in Europe, and made his Japan debut in 2013 with the Mito Chamber Orchestra (MCO) in its 88th Regular Concert, which the audience loved. Starting in the 2018 fiscal year, Baborák will also assume the post of primary guest conductor of the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra in northern Japan.
Rie Miyake
Soprano
Miyake received a master’s degree in opera from the Tokyo College of Music, graduating at the top in her class. She holds another master’s degree from the Bard College Conservatory of Music in New York State in the United States. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in the world-debut performance of Paola Prestini’s Oceanic Verses at the age of 28 in 2009. In 2011, she also made her debut with the Tokyo Nikikai Opera in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (“The Marriage of Figaro“), produced by the creative Japanese theatrical director Amon Miyamoto (b. 1958). In 2013, Miyake appeared as Marcelina in Beethoven’s Fidelio, staged for the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Nissay Theatre in Tokyo. In 2014, she garnered glowing reviews for her performance as one of the flower maidens in Wagner’s Parsifal at the New National Theatre, Tokyo. The following year, Miyake was only Japanese female soloist to perform at the “Celebrating Seiji at 80!“ concert held in Matsumoto, Japan. She is also a member of the Tokyo Nikikai Opera Foundation.
©R&G Photography
Mihoko Fujimura
Mezzo-soprano
Fujimura received her graduate degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts, after which she studied abroad at the graduate school of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München (University of Music and Performing Arts Munich). During her time studying there, she became the de facto winner of the Wagner International Singing Competition. After also winning the Concurs Maria Canals (“Maria Canals“ Barcelona International Musical Execution Competition) in Spain, she embarked on a career contracted exclusively to the Oper Graz (Graz Opera) in Austria. Additionally, the 51-year-old singer has frequently performed at many renowned opera houses and with famous orchestras throughout Europe and elsewhere, including La Scala in Milan, the Bayreuther Festspiele (Bayreuth Festival), the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra), and the Berliner Philharmoniker (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra). She has won the confidence of such highly-regarded conductors as Christian Thielemann (b. 1959), Claudio Abbado (1933-2014) and Riccardo Chailly (b. 1953). In 2014, she was awarded the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honor by the Japanese government for her contributions to artistic developments, improvements and accomplishments.
Kei Fukui
Tenor
Born in 1962 in Iwate, Japan, Fukui received his master’s degree from the Kunitachi College of Music, later completing his studies in a program held at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, under the national government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs. He has won many awards, including the grand prize at the 20th Concorso de Lirico Italian (Competition for Singers of Italian Opera) in Milan, and the 65th Japanese Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts. In 2015, he sang solo tenor in a performance of Beethoven’s Fantasie für Klavier, Chor und Orchester (“Choral Fantasy“), op. 80, at the “Celebrating Seiji at 80!“ concert in Matsumoto, Japan. His past operatic appearances have included Wagner’s Lohengrin, Othello, and Parsifal, and in 2016 he played the part of Tristan in the Tokyo Nikikai Opera’s staging of Tristan und Isolde. The same year, he received rave reviews for his appearance as tenor soloist in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) under the direction of Zubin Mehta (b. 1936), for a concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. The 55-year-old Fukui is also currently a member of the Tokyo Nikikai Opera Foundation.
©Fumiaki Fujimoto
Markus Eiche
Baritone
Born in 1969 in St. Georgen im Schwarzwald, Germany, Eiche placed first in the Concurs Tenor Viñas (Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition) in 1998. He signed on with the Nationaltheater Mannheim (National Theatre Mannheim) from 2001 to 2007 and the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) from 2007 to 2011, since when he has maintained exclusive contracts with both the latter group and the Bayerische Staatsoper (Bavarian State Opera). To date, the 48-year-old Eiche has also performed at La Scala in Milan, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg Festival), and the Bayreuther Festspiele (Bayreuth Festival), to name just a few. He boasts an ample repertoire that extends beyond opera performances, and often holds concerts of works featuring various musical styles from different eras.
©Spring Festival in Tokyo executive committee / Satoshi Aoyagi
Tokyo Opera Singers
Chorus
The Tokyo Opera Singers are an ensemble with a quarter-century history, having been founded at the occasion of the much-hyped 1992 performance in Japan of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer (“The Flying Dutchman”), which was conducted by Seiji Ozawa and produced by Yukio Ninagawa (1935-2016). Ozawa had requested that a “world-class chorus” be assembled for the performance, so it came to be composed of solid singers of medium standing as well as young singers active in the Tokyo area. Thanks to the group’s brilliant success in that venture, they were invited to perform the same year in the first-ever Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan, together with the Bayerische Staatsoper (Bavarian State Opera) during that organization’s 1992 Japanese tour, under the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-1913). Currently, the Tokyo Opera Singers mainly perform at both the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival and the Spring Festival in Tokyo every year, while also making joint performances elsewhere under the direction of prominent conductors from Japan and abroad, such as Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle (b. 1955), Zubin Mehta (b. 1936), Herbert Blomstedt (b. 1927), and Kazushi Ono (b. 1960), and with such orchestras as the Saito Kinen Orchestra, the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra), and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo. One of the mainstays of their repertoire is Beethoven’s Ninth, a perennial Japanese favorite around New Year’s Day.
©Michiharu Okubo
Mito Chamber Orchestra
The Mito Chamber Orchestra (MCO), ATM's exclusive in-house orchestra, was established in 1990 concurrently with the opening of the cultural complex at the behest of ATM's first Director General, the late Hidekazu Yoshida(1913-2012). The group's general director and occasional conductor is the renowned Seiji Ozawa. The regular membership of the ensemble comprises 26 musicians – 21 Japanese and 5 foreigners - who are active worldwide. Before each concert, MCO's members gather from all around the world to the city of Mito to rehearse intensively.
Occasionally, MCO has actively commissioned and debuted new works by Japanese composers, including Toshi Ichiyanagi ("Kisui-iki"), Hikaru Hayashi ("Hika," winner of the 1995 Otaka Prize), and Yoshihisa Taira ("Saiun"), who just died in March 2005. So far the ensemble has produced many CDs and DVDs.
The group has also spread its wings to perform abroad, the tours overseas with Seiji Ozawa having taken place in Europe in 1998 and 2001.
In June 2008, MCO run its third tour for Europe without a conductor. MCO received an invitation from Munich, Florence, and Madrid and the performances received the highest praise.