The Pacific Music Festival (パシフィック・ミュージック・フェスティバル) is an international classical music festival held annually in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

, Japan. It was founded in 1990 by

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

, along with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

, with the original plan of holding the festival in Beijing.PMF Archive
"A music festival which was primarily planned to be held in Beijing, China, has suddenly changed its location to Sapporo. 123 young musicians from 18 countries ..." The original artistic directors were Leonard Bernstein and

Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...

.New York Time
Bernstein and Thomas Head New Pacific Music Festival
Jan 19, 1990... Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas are to be the artistic directors of the first Pacific Music Festival, a $7 million event to be held in Sapporo.

History

2018 / 29th

7 Jul (Sat) - 1 August (Wed) for 26 days

2017 / 28th

8 July - 1 August

Artists

Conductors

Artistic Directors

(1990) *

(1990-2000) *

Christoph Eschenbach Christoph Eschenbach (; born 20 February 1940) is a German pianist and conductor. Early life Eschenbach was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). His parents were Margarethe (née Jaross) and Heribert Ringmann. He was orphaned durin ...

(1991, 93-98) * Charles Dutoit (2000–02) *

Fabio Luisi Fabio Luisi (born 17 January 1959) is an Italian conductor. He is currently principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra. B ...

(2010–12) *

Valery Gergiev Valery Abisalovich Gergiev (russian: Вале́рий Абиса́лович Ге́ргиев, ; os, Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери, Gergity Abisaly fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company d ...

(2015-2019)

Principal Conductors

Bernard Haitink Bernard Johan Herman Haitink (; 4 March 1929 – 21 October 2021) was a Dutch conductor and violinist. He was the principal conductor of several international orchestras, beginning with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961. He moved to Lon ...

(2003) *

(2004, 06) *

Nello Santi Nello Santi (22 September 1931 – 6 February 2020) was an Italian conductor. He was associated with the Opernhaus Zürich for six decades, and was a regular conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He was focused on Italian reperto ...

(2005) *

Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti, (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He currently holds two music directorships, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale ...

(2007) *

(2008) *

Jun Märkl Jun Märkl (born 11 February 1959 in Munich) is a German conductor. Biography Born to a Japanese pianist mother and a German violinist father, Märkl studied piano and the violin as a youth. Beginning in 1978 at the Musikhochschule Hannover he co ...

(2013, 15, 17) *

John Axelrod John Neal Axelrod (born March 28, 1966, in Houston, Texas) is an American conductor. Axelrod was elected Artistic and musical director of the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville in 2014(ABC de SevillaRetrieved 2014-11-26./ref> and is Principal Co ...

(2016, 18) *

Lahav Shani Lahav Shani ( he, להב שני; born 7 January 1989, Tel Aviv) is an Israeli conductor and pianist. Biography Shani is the son of Michael Shani, a choral conductor. He began piano lessons at age 6 with Hannah Shalgi. He continued his piano st ...

(2022)

Guest Conductors

Edo de Waart Edo de Waart (born 1 June 1941, Amsterdam) is a Dutch conductor. He is Music Director Laureate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. De Waart is the former chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (2011-2016), Artistic Partner with the S ...

(2003) *

(2004) *

(2005, 08) *

Yakov Kreizberg Yakov Kreizberg (russian: Яков Крейцберг; born Yakov Mayevich Bychkov, 24 October 1959 – 15 March 2011) was a Russian-born American conductor. Early years In the Soviet Union Yakov Bychkov was born in Leningrad into a family ...

(2006) *

Philippe Jordan Philippe Jordan (born 18 October 1974) is a Swiss conductor and pianist. Biography Born in Zürich, the son of conductor Armin Jordan, he began to study piano at the age of six. At age eight, he joined the Zürcher Sängerknaben. He has ackno ...

(2007) *

Andrey Boreyko Andrey Boreyko (russian: Андре́й Ви́кторович Боре́йко, Andrey Viktorovich Boreyko, pl, Andrzej Borejko; born 22 July 1957) is a Polish-Russian conductor. He has Polish ancestry on his father's side and Russian ancestry ...

(2007) *

Tadaaki Otaka is a Japanese conductor. Biography Otaka studied composition, theory, and French horn, at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. He was subsequently a conducting student of Hideo Saito. Otaka has served as conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orch ...

(2008) * Xian Zhang (2009) *

Krzysztof Urbański Krzysztof Urbański (born 17 October 1982, Pabianice, Poland) is a Polish conductor and composer. Urbański studied conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where his teachers included Antoni Wit, who one year after leav ...

(2011) *

Eivind Gullberg Jensen Eivind Gullberg Jensen (born 1 April 1972) is a Norwegian conductor. Biography Jensen studied violin and conducting in Trondheim. He continued his conducting studies with Jorma Panula in Stockholm and in Vianna with Leopold Hager. Jensen has a ...

(2012) *

Alexander Vedernikov Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov (; 11 January 1964 – 29 October 2020) was a Russian conductor. He held major posts with the Bolshoi Theatre the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Danish Opera, and the Mikhailovsky Theatre. Biography Bor ...

(2013) *

Andris Poga Andris Poga (born 29 June 1980, in Riga) is a Latvian orchestral conductor. Biography Poga is a graduate of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, where he studied trumpet and conducting. He also studied conducting at the University of ...

(2015) *

Edwin Outwater Edwin Maurice Outwater (born 12 April 1971) is an American conductor from Santa Monica, California. About From September 2007 until 2017, he served as the music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada. From 2001 to 200 ...

(2018)

Faculty

Orchestra (2019 season)

Violin

Rainer Küchl Rainer Küchl is an Austrian violinist who was born in Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Austria, 25 August 1950. Background He started to play the violin at the age of 11, and was admitted to the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, at the age ...

/ former concertmaster of the Wiener Phiharmoniker *

Daniel Froschauer Daniel Froschauer (born 30 December 1965) is an Austrian classical violinist and member of the board of directors of the Vienna Philharmonic. Career Born in Vienna, Froschauer was born the son of the conductor and choir director of the Vienna St ...

/ Wiener Philharmoniker *

David Chan David Chan is an American violinist, conductor, and a concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He is one of the most sought-after violinists of his generation. He is a prizewinner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, the Inter ...

/ Metropolitan Opera Orchestra * Stephen Rose / Cleveland Orchestra

Viola

* Heinrich Koll / former principal of the Wiener Philharmoniker * Daniel Foster / National Symphony Orchestra

Cello

* Stefan Gartmayer / Wiener Philharmoniker * Rafael Figueroa / Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Double Bass

* Michael Bladerer / Wiener Philharmoniker * Alexander Hanna / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Flute

Andreas Blau Andreas Blau is a German flutist. He is a former principal flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic. Early life Blau's father was a violinist with the Berlin Philharmonic, joining the orchestra in 1948, a year before Andreas was born. Blau auditioned f ...

/ former principal of the Berliner Philharmoniker * Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Oboe

* Andreas Wittmann / Berliner Philharmoniker *

Eugene Izotov Eugene Izotov (born 1973) is a Russian-born oboist and recording artist. He is Principal Oboist of the San Francisco Symphony appointed by Michael Tilson Thomas in 2014. He is the first Russian-born oboist in any major U.S. symphony orchestra. ...

/ San Francisco Symphony

Clarinet

Alexander Bader Alexander Bader (born 1965 in Stuttgart) is a German clarinetist. He studied piano and clarinet at Berlin's Hochschule der Künste. His clarinet teachers were Manfred Preis and Peter Rieckhoff. He studied under Wolfgang Meyer in the Karlsruhe’s ...

/ Berliner Philharmoniker * Stephen Williamson / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Bassoon

* Stefan Schweigert / Berliner Philharmoniker * Daniel Matsukawa / Philadelphia Orchestra

Horn

* Sarah Willis / Berliner Philharmoniker * William Caballero / Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Trumpet

* Tamás Velenczei / Berliner Philharmoniker * Mark J. Inouye / San Francisco Symphony

Trombone

* Jesper Busk Sørensen / Berliner Philharmoniker * Denson Paul Pollard / Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Percussion

* Cynthia Yeh / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Timpani

* David Herbert / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Harp

* Ladislav Papp / Wiener Staatsoper * Mariko Anraku / Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Vocal Academy (2019 season)

Gabriella Tucci Gabriella Tucci (4 August 19299 July 2020) was an Italian operatic soprano who was particularly associated with the Italian repertory and performed at notable opera houses worldwide. She appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in 11 Verdi roles acros ...

Conducting Academy

(1990) *

(2010–12) *

(2015) *

(2016) *

(2017)

References

External links

PMF Official Website
{{Authority control Music festivals established in 1990 Classical music festivals in Japan Sapporo Music festivals in Japan Leonard Bernstein