Joji HattoriVice Chair
Joji Hattori was born in Tokyo but spent his extraordinary childhood in Vienna, immersed in the musical life of the Seventies and Eighties there, learning from the greatest teachers in Vienna as well as regularly attending performances given by the likes of Carlos Kleiber, Leonard Bernstein, Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Vladimir Horowitz, Yehudi Menuhin, Nathan Milstein, Jessye Norman and Placido Domingo.
In 1989 he won the Menuhin Competition which started off his rather versatile international career as concert violinist, chamber musician, conductor of chamber and symphony orchestras as well as operas.
In 2004 Joji Hattori was appointed Associate Guest Conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, of which he is Principal Guest Conductor now. He has also worked regularly as guest conductor of many major symphony orchestra including the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2011, he has also been the Music Director of the open-air operetta festival at Schloss Kittsee in Austria. From 2003-09 he was Visiting Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music, of which he is an Honorary Member.
“The Menuhin Competition provides a unique forum and meeting place for violinists of all ages and nationalities. It is the duty of the jury to serve and help all the incredibly talented participants, winners and non-winners alike!”