"Sending out high-quality Western classical music from Japan" was the goal for renowned cellist and conductor Hideo Saito (1902-74), who studied in Germany. In 1955, he cofounded the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where he devoted the latter half of his life to music education and taught many Japanese artists, including the world-famous conductor Seiji Ozawa (b. 1935), who has been music director of the Wiener Staatsoper since 2002.
In 1984, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of their mentor's death, Ozawa and conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama, who also studied under Saito, organized a special concert series in Tokyo and Osaka, performed by an orchestra comprised of more than 100 of Saito's top former students drawn from around the world.
"It was such a breathtaking sound," recounts Moto Hirasa, who worked on those concerts as Ozawa's manager — so good, in fact, that Ozawa was inspired to continue performing with the "temporary" ensemble, named the Saito Kinen Orchestra (Saito Memorial Orchestra). Together, they undertook European tours in 1987, '89 and '90, then a world tour in 1991. Now they (and their many avid fans) can look forward to their usual monthlong festival of their orchestral delights in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture — within sight of Japan's Alps — this summer.