Jōji Hattori

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Jōji Hattori ( Japanese 服 部 譲 二 , Hattori Jōji ; born January 21, 1969 in Tokyo ) is a Japanese violinist and conductor.

education

Joji Hattori was born in Japan, but spent his childhood in Vienna, where regular visits to operas and concerts as well as house music evenings with leading Viennese musicians shaped his musical development. Joji Hattori received his first violin lessons at the age of five, and later continued his studies at the Vienna University of Music under Rainer Küchl . Hattori also studied with Yehudi Menuhin , Michel Schwalbé and Vladimir Spivakov .

In 1989 he won the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in England. In 1991 he won the 2nd prize at the 2nd Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition in Augsburg .

Anchored in both cultures and with the origin of his musical career in chamber music, he is today one of the few musicians of Asian origin who are internationally recognized as interpreters of Viennese classical music.

Life

In 2002 he was selected from 362 candidates in the first Maazel-Vilar Conducting Competition (New York) to conduct a debut concert with the St. Luke Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall . He received the Lincoln Maazel Fellowship Prize and from that point on was promoted as a conductor by Lorin Maazel . After a decade of solo activity, he now switched to conducting.

His opera debut (2004) at the Vienna Chamber Opera with La Finta Giardiniera by Mozart has been unanimously praised by all the Viennese newspapers. His Japanese premiere of Leoncavallos Zaza at the New National Theater in Tokyo led to a return invitation to open the 2006 Mozart Memorial Year with a production of The Magic Flute at Japan's first opera house.

In the summer of 2014, Joji Hattori became principal guest conductor and co-director of the Balearic Symphony Orchestra. Since 2004 he has worked regularly with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra , of which he is Associate Guest Conductor. From 2007 to 2008 Hattori was first Kapellmeister at the Theater Erfurt, from 2009 to 2011 musical director of the Kittsee Summer Festival. In June 2009 Hattori made his debut at the Vienna State Opera with three performances of the Magic Flute. Joji Hattori is also Artistic Director of the Tokyo Ensemble , a project-based chamber orchestra in Japan, which he founded in 2001.

As a guest conductor he leads numerous important orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra London , the Vienna Symphony , the Slovak Philharmonic and the Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra Japan and works with well-known soloists such as Maria João Pires , Elisabeth Leonskaja and Sarah Chang .

Joji Hattori is President of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition and is visiting professor at the Royal Academy London , where he was made an honorary member in 2003. He also studied sociology at Oxford University (St. Antony College) and is dedicated to research in the field of national identities. Hattori lives in Vienna.

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