Photo/Illutration Seiji Ozawa shows his energetic conducting style at a concert in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in September 2010. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Conductor Seiji Ozawa, who led postwar Japan’s classical music world and remained at the forefront of some of the greatest symphonies on the planet, died of heart failure on Feb. 6. He was 88.

A funeral was held by his next of kin. A memorial service will be planned at a later date.

Ozawa was born in Shenyang, China, in 1935. He showed early talent as a pianist but switched to conducting after injuring his fingers while playing rugby.

He began his conducting studies in high school under the tutelage of composer Naozumi Yamamoto and renowned cellist Hideo Saito.

After graduating from Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music, Ozawa traveled to Europe in 1959 and became the first Japanese to win the Besancon international competition for conductors.

He became a student of Herbert von Karajan, and in 1961, Leonard Bernstein recognized Ozawa’s talent and made him assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

He has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic.

After working with the San Francisco Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Canada, Ozawa became artistic director of the Tanglewood music festival in the United States in 1970.

From 1973, he served as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 years.

From 2002 to 2010, he was music director of the Vienna State Opera, and in 2002, he became the first Japanese conductor to appear at the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic.

In 1987, Ozawa formed the Saito Kinen Orchestra, which toured extensively in Europe and the United States and demonstrated to the world the high standard of Japanese musicians.

Since the discovery of esophageal cancer at the end of 2009, Ozawa had been on and off the orchestra’s board.

His last public appearance was in September 2023. He appeared on stage in a wheelchair while John Williams conducted in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.