Around the Music Festival

The New National Theatre Tokyo announced on March 13 that the current artistic director of the opera department, Kazushi Ono, has been reappointed for the 2026/2027 season. Ono has held the position since 2018, and the renewal of his contract will extend his term of office by four years to August 31, 2030.

Ono is 64 years old and was born in Tokyo. He studied conducting at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and upon graduation, at the age of 25, he moved to Europe, where he won the 1987 Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition, and in 1988 became the permanent conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra in Croatia.

He has since served as General Music Director of the Baden State Opera in Karlsruhe, Germany (1996-2002), Music Director of the Royal Théâtre de la Monnaie in Belgium (2002-2008), Chief Conductor of the Opéra National de Lyon in France (2008-2017), and Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (2015-2022). He is also Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Brussels in Belgium from 2022.

Meanwhile, in Japan, he served as the Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (1992-2001) and has been the Music Director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra since 2015.

PHOTO：New National Theatre Tokyo


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