The Goals of the Foundation

• to establish a Music Academy for young musicians in Switzerland where they can be taught the art of playing chamber music and of performing in an orchestra

• to provide young musicians with the chance to perform in a concert

The Foundation is a non-profit-making organisation.

The Academy

At the start of the summer of 2006, i.e. from 27 June to 7 July, the Academy will – just as it did for its grand premiere in the summer of 2005 – welcome its students at the Hindemith Music Centre in Blonay, a venue steeped in tradition where music can be allowed to blossom in an atmosphere that is wholly conducive to study and concentration. Six string quartets will be working there under the guidance of celebrated teachers who share Seiji Ozawa’s approach to music and who have had similar experiences to his own. These include Robert Mann (former first violin of the Juilliard Quartet), Sadao Harada (former cellist of the Tokyo Quartet), Nobuko Imai (violist and professor at the Geneva Conservatory), and Pamela Frank (violin).

In 2007, the Academy took place in Rolle, between Lausanne and Geneva at « Le Courtil » centre. Tuition at the Academy had been given at an intensive rythm over a ten-day period. From June 24th onwards, the daytime study had been devoted to string-quartet playing, while the evening session had been given over to orchestral-ensemble work under the direction of Seiji Ozawa.