TOKYO: JONATHAN NOTT NAMED NEXT MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE TOKYO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Mr. Nott becomes Music Director in 2014-15 season. Initial Three-Year Contract to Commence in September 2014.
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra Chairman Hideo Sawada and Managing Director and Executive Director Junji Ohno announced a while ago that conductor Jonathan Nott will become the Orchestra’s next Music Director, beginning in 2014-15 season. The initial agreement is for three years.

Jonathan Nott. Foto: Thomas Mueller.

As the Tokyo Symphony’s third Music Director, Mr. Jonathan Nott, will succeed Hubert Soudant, whose tenure began in 2004 and ended with the 2013/14 season. Mr
. Nott will conduct the Tokyo Symphony for eight weeks each year.
Mr. Nott made his debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in October 2011 conducting Debussy’s Sirenes from Nocturnes, Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto op. 42 with soloist Yu Kosuge and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe (full version). This single collaboration proved a fortuitous encounter.

Born in 1962, Mr. Nott is now Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and frequently guest conducts the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras and the Royal Concertgebouw, Tonhalle and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras. Mr
. Nott has exercised his superb artistic sensibility in an extensive repertoire ranging from classic to contemporary works.
“I first conducted the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in October 2011 and it was immediately clear that there was an enormous rapport,” said Jonathan Nott. “The morning after the final performance, actually on the way to Narita airport, I received the invitation to take up the post of Music Director and I accepted without hesitation. What appealed to me most about making music with this orchestra was the freshness of the players’ approach, their commitment to the spontaneity of live performance, and their dedication and sense of good humor in achieving these goals.”

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, foto N. Ikegami

Jonathan Nott also commented: “My work with the Orchestra begins in April 2014 and comprises four extended periods each year. I am delighted to be given this opportunity to share in Japan’s extraordinarily rich musical culture, a culture I was immediately taken by on my very first visit a decade ago now. And what a wonderfully inspiring concert-going public! Of course, sharing through communication is the 
raison d’être of every musician, and so, together with the Orchestra and with the entire repertoire at our Jonathan Nott Named Next Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony disposal, I am very much looking forward to meeting our audiences in all our venues and experiencing and sharing this music with them.”

“We are thrilled at the appointment of Mr. Jonathan Nott as our next Music Director,” said Hideo Sawada,
Chairman of the Tokyo Symphony. “We all look forward to a very bright future with Mr
. Nott, who has 
already has built an extraordinary career, and the Orchestra.”

“I am truly excited to announce our new Music Director, Jonathan Nott,” said Junji Ohno, Managing
Director of the Tokyo Symphony. “At a Suntory Hall subscription concert in October 2011 Mr. Nott drew 
from the Orchestra a sensitive elastic sound that surprised us at Suntory Hal subscription concert in 
October 2011. The reaction from our audience, the joy of TSO musicians and my strong emotion were in 
harmony like a symphony. I must say this was fate.”

Next concert by Jonathan Nott and the Tokyo Symphony: 
<Subscription Concert No. 614>, Sunday, October 13, 2013, 2:00p.m. Suntory Hall
*This concert will be performed as a Niigata subscription concert on October 14, 2013, at Ryutopia
Concert Hall.
Jonathan Nott, conductor
Christine Brewer, soprano
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
R
. STRAUSS: Four Last Songs
R. STRAUSS: An Alpine Symphony
About Jonathan Nott:
Jonathan Nott is to be Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in the 2014 season.
Jonathan Nott has been Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra since 2000, lifting the Orchestra to a prominence acknowledged by their winning of the Midem Award for the best symphonic recording (of Mahler 9) of 2010.

About the Tokyo Symphony: 
The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) celebrated the sixty-sixth anniversary of is foundation in April 2012. The musical world always paid close attention to TSO’s subscription concerts based on a seasonal theme chosen every year by Music Director Hubert Soudant. In July, 2011, TSO released a CD of Bruckner’s Symphony No.8 (N&F Label) conducted by Music Director Hubert Soudant. Meanwhile, it received approval from the Cabinet Office to become a public interest incorporated foundation effective April 1, 2011. Jonathan Nott Named Next Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony.
The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra expanded its concert activities through an agreement with the City of Kawasaki to become the resident orchestra of the Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall, which opened in July 2004, and to perform a Kawasaki subscription series and various other concerts. The TSO is active in performing at schools, hospitals, and other facilities in Kawasaki and at venues elsewhere. The TSO is also a semi-resident orchestra of the city of Niigata, and performs the Niigata subscription concert series at
Ryutopia Concert hall.

Music Director Hubert Soudant and the TSO received the 21st Music Pen Club Awards/Concert and the award in the Performance Category for Schubert Zyklus performed as a subscription concert in 2008. This was followed by prizes in two categories of the same Music Pen Club awards, namely, Best Recording Product in the Classical Music Category and Best Recording in the Audio Category (recorded by N&F) for Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, released in October 2009. Orchestra and conductor were the talk of the town after they received awards in two consecutive years.
TSO is consistently ranked among the top Japanese orchestras by music journals.
Previous Music Directors of the Tokyo Symphony :
Kazuyoshi Akiyama 1965~2004 
Hubert Soudant 2004~present