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2021 Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival (2021OMF) Full Program Announcement!

2021 Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival (2021OMF) Full Program Announcement!

We are pleased to announce the full program of the 2021 Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival (OMF). In addition to the Orchestra Concert Programs A and B announced in May, the 2021 OMF will also hold three chamber concerts and one family concert, for a total of six programs / eight paid concerts. With the addition of one performance on August 21, the festival will be held over a period of seventeen days, from Saturday, August 21 through Monday, September 6, 2021.

OMF official website and its program pages are renewed. All tickets go on sale on July 10 (Sat) 10:00 AM nationwide. Ticket page will be open when its ready.

[Orchestra Concert]
We announce the pieces to be performed at the orchestra concerts conducted by Masaaki Suzuki (Program A) and Charles Dutoit (Program B). In Program A, Mo. Suzuki and the Saito Kinen Orchestra (SKO) will ambitiously perform pieces that are all new to the festival. It is also noteworthy that the program will vary on the 28th and 29th with the popular Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major as the centerpiece. Mo. Dutoit has a strong reputation especially for French works, and Program B will be an exciting lineup comprising repertoire that he excels in. We invite you to look forward to the collaboration between the SKO and the maestro, who continues to weave fresh timbre while arriving at his mature stage.
Orchestra Concert Program A
Orchestra Concert Program B

[Chamber Concert]
Our Chamber Concerts, which deliver quality chamber music every year, will offer two performances with Saito Kinen Orchestra virtuosos demonstrating their skills at the Harmony Hall with its superb acoustics. For Chamber Concert I, Masaaki Suzuki, who will conduct Orchestra Concert Program A, will perform as an organ and cembalo player. While Mr. Suzuki’s Bach program will obviously be a highlight as he is renowned as a leading authority of Bach, we also highly anticipate his collaboration with violinist Kei Shirai. A special selection of SKO members will perform in Chamber Concert II. We are now earnestly making arrangements for the performers and program content. We promise that the details will be exciting.

To celebrate the first day of the festival, we will hold an opening concert at Agata no Mori Bunka Kaikan Auditorium. As a rarity for the festival, five short concerts of under an hour will be held in one day, with tickets at the very affordable price of 2,000 yen per concert. We planned this with the hope that audiences will easily become familiar with the charm of individual SKO members. Takayoshi Wanami (violin), Yoshiko Kawamoto (viola), Dai Miyata (cello), Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass), Masaharu Yamamoto (clarinet), Masaru Yoshida (bassoon), Naoko Yoshino (harp), and Mineko Tsuchiya (piano) are scheduled to perform and will magnificently adorn the return of the festival after a two-year absence.
Chamber Concert I
Chamber Concert II
OMF Opening Concert

[OMF Family Concert]
The Concert for Children of the educational program invites sixth-grade students from Nagano Prefecture elementary schools to experience an orchestra concert, and this will also be held as a paid concert that can be enjoyed by families this year. The program will be Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, a very famous piece that everyone is sure to have heard at least once. Taking the baton will be Keiko Mitsuhashi, who studied conducting under Seiji Ozawa at the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy 2009–11 and served as chorus conductor for War Requiem at the 2010 SKO New York concert at Carnegie Hall. Enjoy the performance of the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Orchestra that is formed by promising young musicians chosen by audition and the introduction of instruments between music performances.
OMF Family Concert

[Educational Program]
As customary, we will hold the Concert for Children inviting sixth-grade students from Nagano Prefecture elementary schools and the Opera for Children inviting first-year students from Nagano Prefecture junior high schools. Please see individual program pages for conductors and program content.
Concert for Children
Opera for Children

The program announced in this release is current as of June 10, 2021. Dates, content, etc. are subject to change depending on the COVID-19 situation.