The role of the Academy’s tutors is clearly crucial, and they must all work according to the same musical principles. Seiji Ozawa has surrounded himself with tutors who not only provide instruction to the young instrumentalists coming from all over the world,but also ensure cohesion among the students.

Robert Mann

As founder and first violinist of the celebrated Juilliard String Quartet for fifty-two years, as well as a soloist, composer, teacher and conductor, Mr Mann has brought a refreshing sense of adventure and discovery to chamber music. He is, in the words of Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe, “one of the country’s most admired and deeply loved musicians.”

In 1938, he moved to New York City to enrol in The Juilliard School, where he studied violin, composition and conducting. Robert Mann won the prestigious Naumburg competition in 1941. Robert Mann formed the Juilliard String Quartet in 1946, and served as the ensemble’s first violinist until his retirement from the quartet in 1997. The quartet, which celebrated its Golden Jubilee during the 1996-97 season, had played approximately 5,500 concerts and performed more than 500 works including some 75 premieres. Its discography includes recordings of more than 100 compositions.

Mr. Mann has composed more than 30 works for narrator with various instruments that he performs with his wife, the actress Lucy Rowan. He has also composed an Orchestral Fantasy performed by Dimitri Mitropoulos with the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and at the Salzburg Festival; a Duo for Violin and Piano that was premiered at Carnegie Hall by Yitzhak Perlman, a String Quartet, a Duo for Cello and Piano, a Concerto for Orchestra…

On February 12, 2011, as founder of the Juilliard String Quartet, Mr. Mann along with the Juilliard String Quartet was honoured by the Grammy Awards with The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He was recently honoured by New York’s Manhattan School of Music and the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music with endowed chairs given in his name. Each summer, at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa, Mr. Mann attends Japan’s Saito Kinen Music Festival as conductor, teacher and performer and to Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland as teacher and conductor. At the age of 90 years, Robert Mann is gratefully still actively performing, composing, teaching and conducting.

Nobuko Imai

Nobuko Imai is considered to be one of the most outstanding violist of our time. After studying at the Toho School of Music, Yale University and the Juilliard School, she was the only one to win the highest prizes at both the prestigious international competition in Munich and Geneva.

Formerly a member of the esteemed Vermeer Quartet, she has performed as a soloist with numerous wolrd’s prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw, the London Symphony and the Chicago Symphony. Nobuko Imai has performed with various prominent artists such as Gidon Kremer, Midori, Isaac Stern, Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich. In 2003, she formed the Michelangelo Quartet who became one of finest quartets in the world.

Nobuko Imai has dedicated a large part of her artistic activities to explore the diverse potential of the viola. She returns to Japan several times a year, to perform as soloist and notably for the annual “Viola Space” project. In 1995/1996 she was artistic director of three Hindemith Festivals at the Wigmore Hall in London, at Columbia University in New York and at the Casals Hall in Tokyo. In 2009 she founded The Tokyo International Viola Competition, the first international competition in Japan exclusively for viola. Nobuko Imai taught as a Professor at the Detmold Academy of Music from 1983 to 2003, and currently teaches at the conservatories of Amsterdam and Geneva, Kronberg International Academy, and Ueno Gakuen University in Tokyo.

Pamela Frank

As the daughter of two professional pianists, Pamela Frank was immersed in music from a very young age, beginning her violin studies at the age of five. After 11 years as a pupil of Shirley Givens, she continued her musical education with Szymon Goldberg and Jaime Laredo. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1989. Pamela Frank has established an outstanding international reputation for herself with an unusually varied repertoire, and has made innumerable appearances as a soloist with all of the world’s great orchestras. She made her debut at a Carnegie Hall recital in 1995, and then performed a much acclaimed Beethoven sonata cycle with her father at London’s Wigmore Hall in 1997. She shares her passion for chamber music in performances with distinguished musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, Tabea Zimmermann and Peter Serkin. She has made guest appearances at many major festivals, including Marlboro, Salzburg and Edinburgh. She has also taken part in many of the Isaac Stern chamber music seminars at the Carnegie Hall. In 1999, she was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest distinctions given to American instrumentalists.

Sadao Harada

As the founder of and mentor to the Tokyo String Quartet, which he also directed for 30 years, Sadao Harada has gained an international reputation and received numerous prizes for his outstanding technical mastery and the vibrancy of his performances. He began his musical studies with his father at the age of 11, before continuing them with Maestro Hideo Saito, and becoming the youngest cellist in the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. From there, he enrolled at the Juilliard School in the United States and went on to found the Tokyo String Quartet in 1969. Since 1999, he has pursued a busy career on the international stage as an acclaimed soloist, a teacher who is constantly in demand, and a renowned chamber musician. He currently teaches at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik at Trossingen in Germany.