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Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, known in Japan simply as Tokyō, is a Japanese symphony orchestra in Tokyo. The city of Tokyo founded the orchestra in 1965, in the wake of the 1964 Olympic Games. Heinz Hofmann was the first permanent conductor, from 1965 to 1967. The orchestra regularly plays at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, which also houses its offices, at Suntory Hall and at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.

Music and breakthrough

Thanks to the work of Hiroshi Wakasugi, Eliahu Inbal and Gary Bertini, among others, the orchestra regularly plays symphonies by Gustav Mahler. Later music directors included James DePreist and Kazushi Ōno, who has led this orchestra since 2015 and ends his tenure in 2026. Alan Gilbert has been principal guest conductor since 2018, and the Finn Pekka Kuusisto has been announced as chief conductor from 2028. The orchestra won the Kyoto Music Award in 1991, and received Record Academy Awards for recordings under Inbal, including with Shostakovich and with a new Mahler cycle.

Influence

The list of recordings is wide. It includes classical works by Bartók, Bizet, Sibelius and Mendelssohn, and Japanese contemporary composers. It also includes symphonic suites from the computer game series Dragon Quest, released between 2004 and 2006. In this way the orchestra builds a bridge between the concert hall and the music of video games, which in Japan has an orchestral audience of its own.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a movement from one of the Dragon Quest suites by this orchestra and notice how a melody from a computer game sounds with strings, brass and percussion. Can you hear how the music is developed like an ordinary symphony?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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