Eiji Oue

Eiji Oue (大植 英次, Ōue Eiji, born October 3, 1956, in Hiroshima, Japan) is a Japanese conductor.

Eiji Oue
Born	(1956-10-03)October 3, 1956 Japan Hiroshima
Other names	大植 英次
Alma mater	Toho Gakuen School of Music
Occupation	conductor

Biography

Oue began his conducting studies with Hideo Saito of the Toho Gakuen School of Music. In 1978, Seiji Ozawa invited him to spend the summer studying at the Tanglewood Music Center. There he met Leonard Bernstein, who became a mentor. Oue won the Tanglewood Koussevitzky Prize in 1980.^[1] He also studied under Bernstein as a conducting fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute.

Oue became music director of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras in 1982, a post he held until 1989. He was music director of the Erie Philharmonic from 1990 to 1995. He has also served as associate conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1995 to 2002, he was music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. During his Minnesota tenure, the orchestra saw its attendance decline from 84% to 69% in capacity. He presided over the orchestra's first tours to Europe and Japan. He also made recordings with Minnesota, most on the Reference Records label.^[2] Oue served as music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming from 1997 to 2003.

After a 1997 tour with the NDR Philharmonie Hannover, Oue was appointed its principal conductor in September 1998. In 2003, he was appointed principal conductor of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra. Oue made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2005, conducting Tristan und Isolde. He became music director of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona in September 2006, stepping down in 2010.^[3]

Oue's commercial recordings include Niccolò Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Louis Spohr’s Violin Concerto No. 8 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hilary Hahn for Deutsche Grammophon.^[4]

He has been professor of conducting at the Musikhochschule Hannover since 2000.

Awards

• 2006 Osaka Culture Prize Special Arts Prize

Discography

• Dominick Argento: Casa Guidi, Capriccio for Clarinet and Orchestra and In Praise of Music, with Frederica von Stade, Burt Hara and the Minnesota Orchestra, Reference Recordings, 2002

External links

• IMG Artists agency biography

References

1. Biography in "Respighi: Belkis, Queen of Sheba, suite, et al." Minnesota Orchestra, Eiji Oue, conductor. Sound recording :(RR-95CD)
2. R.W. Apple Jr. (January 29, 2000). "Where Winter's a Wonder and Smiles Are Sincere. You Betcha". New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
3. "González es elegido director titular de la Sinfónica de Barcelona". La Voz de Asturias. April 17, 2009. Archived from the original on August 3, 2012. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
4. Vivien Schweitzer (October 29, 2006). "A Low-Profile Name From the Past and One Known to All Today". New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2009.

Cultural offices
Preceded by Ling Tung	Music Director, Grand Teton Music Festival 1997–2003	Succeeded by Donald Runnicles
Preceded by Takashi Asahina	Music Director, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra 2003–2014	Succeeded by Michiyoshi Inoue
Preceded by Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo	Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya 2006–2010	Succeeded by Pablo González