Pacific Music Festival

An international festival of classical music held each summer in Sapporo, Japan, founded in 1990 by Leonard Bernstein with the London Symphony Orchestra. For close to a month every July, young musicians study and perform alongside leading orchestral players and conductors.

• Founded in 1990 by Leonard Bernstein and the London Symphony Orchestra
• The first edition gathered 123 young musicians from 18 countries
• Held every summer in Sapporo, Japan, since 1990
• Michael Tilson Thomas was artistic director from 1990 to 2000
• The 29th edition in 2018 ran 26 days, from 7 July to 1 August

What it is

The Pacific Music Festival is an international gathering for classical music held each summer in Sapporo, Japan. It is part concert series, part school: young musicians come together to study and perform alongside players and conductors of international standing. Leonard Bernstein started the festival in 1990, together with the London Symphony Orchestra, and its first season already drew 123 young musicians from 18 countries — a sign of the scale it was meant to have. Since then it has become a fixture of Sapporo's calendar, running for close to a month every July. For the young players who attend, it is a chance to learn orchestral craft from faculty drawn from leading orchestras and to work under celebrated conductors; for the city, it brings world-class music-making to the northern summer.

Where it comes from

Leonard Bernstein founded the festival in 1990, working with the London Symphony Orchestra. Its first season brought together 123 young musicians from 18 countries. Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas were the founding artistic directors, and Tilson Thomas remained in the post until 2000. Since then the role has passed through other eminent hands: Christoph Eschenbach in the early 1990s, Charles Dutoit from 2000 to 2002, Fabio Luisi from 2010 to 2012 and Valery Gergiev from 2015 to 2019. The festival has run every year since it began; by 2018 it had reached its 29th edition, which filled most of that July. Its conductors over the years read like a roll call of the podium — Marin Alsop, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti and Gergiev himself have all led its orchestra.

How it is celebrated

A PMF season is built around a festival orchestra of young players, tutored and led by senior musicians. The 2019 faculty list shows the calibre: principals and section players from the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony, covering every chair from violin to harp. Alongside the orchestra there is a Conducting Academy, where young conductors have learned from figures such as Fabio Luisi, Andris Poga and Jun Märkl, and a Vocal Academy. Guest and principal conductors change from year to year — recent seasons have included Lahav Shani, John Axelrod and Jun Märkl. The 2018 edition ran from 7 July to 1 August, 26 days of rehearsal, teaching and concert-giving in Sapporo.

Joining in

The whole festival takes place in Sapporo, where it has been based since its first edition. Expect roughly four weeks of activity from early July into the start of August: the 2018 season ran 26 days, and the 2017 one followed a similar shape, opening on 8 July and closing on 1 August. Concerts and academy work centre on the festival orchestra, so the musical line-up shifts as the summer moves along. Artist details for each year appear on the festival's official website, pmf.or.jp.

Sources and attribution

This page is Mela's own summary, written in new words. Its facts are drawn from the Wikipedia article Pacific Music Festival, whose text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Each photo is credited to its author beside it. For the full account, read the originals below.

Read more

• Pacific Music Festival on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Official websiteOfficial site
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos
• Wikidata recordOpen data

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