Watanabe, Akeo

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Watanabe, Akeo

Watanabe, Akeo, Japanese conductor; b. Tokyo, June 5, 1919; d. there, June 22, 1990. He studied piano and violin as a youth, then received training in conducting from Joseph Rosenstock at the Tokyo Academy of Music and from Jean Morel at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. In 1945 he made his conducting debut with the Tokyo Sym. Orch. He was conductor of the Tokyo Phil. (1948-54), served as founder-conductor of the Japan Phil. in Tokyo (1956-68), and was conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Sym. Orch. (1972-78); also appeared as guest conductor in the U.S. and Europe. He served again as conductor of the Japan Phil. (1978-83), then was music director of the Hiroshima Sym. Orch. (from 1988).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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