The Saito Kinen Orchestra is an ever-changing collective of Japanese classical musicians who first came together in 1984 to perform at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto in Japan. Led by Seiji Ozawa and Kazuyoshi Akiyama, the orchestra first came together to honor the 10th anniversary of the death of conductor and cellist Hideo Saito, who had co-founded the Toho Gakuen School of Music. The initial group of musicians – including Ozawa and Akiyama – had all been students Saito when he taught at the school. The orchestra began to perform outside of the annual festival, undertaking a European tour in 1987. They also undertook tours of Europe and the US between 1989 and 1991. The orchestra recorded a series of albums including Brahms: Symphony No. 4 / Hungarian Dances • Ungarische Tänze 5 & 6 (1990), Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex (1994), Poulenc: Les Mamelles De Tirésias / Le Bal Masqué (1997), Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 / Leonore Overture No.2 (2000), and Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra / Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (2005). The Saito Kinen Orchestra was voted the 19th best orchestra in the world by Gramophone Magazine in 2008. In 2023, the orchestra performed with iconic composer / conductor John Williams, who was performing in Japan for the first time in 30 years. The concert was recorded and released in 2024 on the album John Williams in Tokyo. The album was released just five months after the death of the Saito Kinen Orchestra’s co-founder and director Seiji Ozawa.
