TOKYO – Renowned conductor and essayist Hiroyuki Iwaki died early Tuesday morning after years of battling an incurable disease. He was 73.
In 1954, the Tokyo native took the job of assistant conductor at the NHK Symphony Orchestra while still a student at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He made his professional debut two years later.
Following a career that saw him appointed as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s first conductor laureate, he returned to Japan, where in 1988 he established the country’s first professional chamber music ensemble, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, for which he served as music director. He has also taken the podium at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.
On New Year’s Eve in 2004 and 2005, Iwaki also dared to perform all nine Beethoven symphonies. The wheelchair-bound conductor raised his baton early this year, too.
In addition to appearing in a commercial for instant coffee, Iwaki also gained notoriety for essays he penned, including “Bo furi” (baton waving) and “Firuharumoni no fukei” (philharmonic landscape), which was honored with a Japan Essayist Club award in 1991.
In 1996, he received the Medal with Purple Ribbon and in 2003, became a member of the Japan Art Academy.
“I’m a professional patient,” Iwaki once said in regard to his constant battle with disease. Despite the recurring problem, he continued to conduct to the end of his life.
Members of his orchestra heard the news of his death Tuesday.
Iwaki had been planning to perform on May 28 a piece composed by his close friend the late Toru Takemitsu to mark the 10th anniversary of his death.
But when he sat in his wheelchair to attend a rehearsal, he complained of dizziness due to severe anemia, and ultimately abandoned the performance.
Since contracting an incurable disease in his cervical vertebrae in 1987, he underwent surgery more than 20 times for illnesses, including stomach cancer.
In 2001, after undergoing an operation for cancer in his pharynx, he was forced to communicate in a strained voice.
Acknowledged for his contribution to modern music, he was awarded in 2002 the Japan Art Academy Award. Upon receiving the honor, he said, “If we try to destroy tradition and don’t work to build it up, the arts will not move forward.”
He is survived by his wife, pianist Kaori Kimura.
The date for his funeral has yet to be decided.
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