The Japan Art Association has announced that Seiji Ozawa, former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is one of five winners of the 2011 Praemium Imperiale arts awards recognizing lifetime achievement in the arts. In addition to Ozawa, winner in the music category, laureates are Bill Viola (painting), Anish Kapoor (sculpture), Ricardo Legorreta (architecture), and Judi Dench (theater/film). Each winner receives a prize of 15 million yen (approximately $182,000). An awards ceremony for Praemium Imperiale recipients will be held in Tokyo on October 19, when laureates will receive gold medals and diplomas from Prince Hitachi, honorary patron of the Japan Art Association. The Praemium Imperiale, created in 1988 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Japan Art Association, is given annually, with previous winners including Mstislav Rostropovich, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Posted July 15, 2011
