Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa was founded in 1988 with support from Ishikawa Prefecture and Kanazawa City, a city symbolizing Japanese Art, Culture and Tradition.
The initiative was taken by reknowned conductor IWAKI Hiroyuki to create the country’s first multinational chamber orchestra, consisting of 40 musicians from all over the world. One of the youngest orchestras in the country, it has a busy schedule presenting more than 100 concerts a year in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture and in all major cities throughout Japan. Additionally, the orchestra regularly performs abroad: there have been recent tours to Europe as well as to South-East Asia and Australia.
Conductors and Soloists performing with the orchestra have included Vladimir ASHKENAZY, Sir Neville MARRINER, Marc MINKOWSKI, Peter SCHREIER, Oliver KNUSSEN, Daniel HARDING, Enrico ONOFRI, Augustin DUMAY as well as Hermann PREY, Gidon KREMER, Yo-Yo MA, Alice Sara OTT, Boris BELKIN, MIDORI and Mario BRUNELLO. Although programme building is based on classical repertoire, great emphasis is put on interpretation of contemporary music. The endeavor to commission, explore, and perform new music has led to more than 50 world premieres, mostly of pieces written by composers in residence, namely ICHIYANAGI Toshi, ISHII Maki, TOYAMA Yuzo, NISHIMURA Akira, YUASA Joji, TAKEMITSU Toru, MAYUZUMI Toshiro, IKEBE Shin’ichiro, FUJIIE Keiko, HAYASHI Hikaru, GONDAI Atsuhiko, Lera AUERBACH, MAMIYA Michio, NIIMI Tokuhide, SAEGUSA Shigeaki, Roger BOUTRY, KAKO Takashi, MOCHIZUKI Misato, CHIN Unsuk and Thierry ESCAICH. Among many CD productions by Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Bizet/ Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite and Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No.1 （Deutsche Grammophon）, received the Record Academy Prize in 1992. “Messages for the 21st Century Vol.2” （Deutsche Grammophon）, an album composed entirely of commissioned new music, also received the Record Academy Prize in 1995. In 2005, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa was featured as “Orchestra in residence” at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, performing with Thomas ZEHETMAIR, Jessye NORMAN, Ludovic MORLOT and others. OEK was again at this festival in 2008, 2011, 2013. Since 2008, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa performed as resident orchestra at “La Folle Journée de Kanazawa” in Japan （Rene MARTIN, artistic director）. INOUE Michiyoshi （2007-2018 as Music Director）, Marc MINKOWSKI（2007-2018 as Artistic Chef） became the orchestra’s director. Then Orchestra has invited HIROKAMI Junichi as Artistic Leader since 2022.
