BIOGRAPHY

Joji Hattori is one of the leading Japanese musicians of his generation and has enjoyed a very varied career as a musician, firstly as a concert violinist, an activity which has developed into directing chamber orchestras, conducting symphony orchestras and finally operas. He has been Associate Conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra since 2004 and this year was appointed Principal Resident Conductor of the State Opera House in Erfurt, Germany, to start in August 2007. During the coming season he will conduct the premieres of Rossini’s Barbier of Seville, Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera and Leoncavallo’s operetta La Reginetta delle Rose there.

In addition to his regular engagements in Erfurt as well as with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra at its residence (Vienna Konzerthaus) and on tours, Joji Hattori serves as Music Director of the Tokyo Ensemble, a project-based chamber orchestra he founded in 2001. As guest conductor he regularly works with many distinguished orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra London, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Slovakian Philharmonic or the Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra Japan and collaborates with eminent soloists including Maria Joao Pires, Piotr Anderszewski, Elisabeth Leonskaja and Elena Bashkirova.

He was born in Japan and spent his childhood in Vienna where regularly attending the opera house and concert halls formed his musical development. Influenced by both cultures, Hattori is today one of the very few conductors of Asian heritage who is respected internationally for his interpretation of the Viennese Classics.

He started playing the violin at the age of five and studied at the Vienna Academy of Music, followed by further studies with Yehudi Menuhin and Vladimir Spivakov. In 1989 he won the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in England. After a decade of international activities as a violin soloist, he turned to conducting and in 2002 participated at the inaugural Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition where he was given a major award. Lorin Maazel enabled him to give his conducting debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall and continues to support his career.

His opera debut at the Vienna Kammeroper with Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera was praised unanimously by all major newspapers in Vienna and following a successful Japan premiere of Leoncavallo’s Zaza at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, he was invited to conduct Mozart’s Magic Flute in January 2006, inaugurating the Mozart Anniversary at Japan’s first opera house.

Apart from his performing activities, he has also been teaching as Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and was made an Honorary Member there in 2003. He also studied sociology at Oxford University where he is a member of the Senior Common Room at St. Antony’s College. Since 2002 he has been Chairman and Artistic Director of the International Menuhin Competition for Young Violinists and the violin festival surrounding each competition.

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