Japanese Music Festival to Be Renamed in Honor of Ozawa

The Saito Kinen Festival, which the conductor Seiji Ozawa founded in 1992, in Matsumoto, Japan, as a tribute to his teacher, Hideo Saito, will be renamed in honor of Mr. Ozawa, The Japan Times reported. At a news conference in Tokyo on Monday, the festival announced that starting in 2015, the annual summer series will be called the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. Its principal ensemble, however, will continue as the Saito Kinen Orchestra.

Mr. Ozawa, 78, largely withdrew from concert life in 2010, partly because recurring back problems had made it difficult for him to walk, and also because his doctors discovered that Mr. Ozawa had cancer of the esophagus. A series of operations left him cancer free and helped ease his back problems, but a return to conducting in 2011 proved premature, and he stayed off the podium for another two years, returning in May 2013 to lead the New Japan Philharmonic, and taking up his duties as general director of the Saito Kinen Festival that summer.

At the news conference, Mr. Ozawa said that he felt better about having the festival named for him than he did about having Seiji Ozawa Hall, at Tanglewood, named for him in 1994. A concert hall bearing your name, he said, 'is a little bit like a tombstone,' Reuters quoted him as saying.

'That somebody like me, who has suffered a major illness and underwent surgery, can speak casually about death is proof that I've really recovered,' Mr. Ozawa added. 'Either that, or I'm really dumb - but please think of me as being recovered and active.'

Entities 0 Name: Ozawa Count: 5 1 Name: Saito Kinen Festival Count: 2 2 Name: Tokyo Count: 1 3 Name: Tanglewood Count: 1 4 Name: Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival Count: 1 5 Name: Hideo Saito Count: 1 6 Name: Matsumoto Count: 1 7 Name: Seiji Ozawa Count: 1 8 Name: New Japan Philharmonic Count: 1 9 Name: Reuters Count: 1 10 Name: Saito Kinen Orchestra Count: 1 11 Name: Seiji Ozawa Hall Count: 1 12 Name: The Japan Times Count: 1 13 Name: Japan Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/UMoeiK Title: Japan festival renamed after fit-again maestro Ozawa Description: Acclaimed Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who overcame a battle with cancer, brushed aside the idea of his death Monday as a premier classical music festival was renamed after him. The Saito Kinen music festival, held every summer since 1992 in the central city of Matsumoto, will be named the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival from next year to honour the maestro's contribution to the event.