Hiroyuki Iwaki, 73; Conducted Melbourne Symphony for 30 Years
Hiroyuki Iwaki, 73, the Japanese conductor who led the Melbourne Symphony for more than three decades and wielded the baton from a wheelchair as his heath declined, died Tuesday of heart failure at a Tokyo hospital.
Iwaki maintained a passion for work despite nearly 30 surgical operations over the years for illnesses including lung cancer and pharynx cancer.
Born in Tokyo, Iwaki studied music at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He made his conducting debut with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra in 1956 and was appointed conductor of the orchestra in 1963.
After making his European debut with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in 1962, Iwaki conducted the Berlin and Vienna philharmonic orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig.
Iwaki became the conductor of the Melbourne Symphony in 1973 and led the ensemble for more than three decades.
In 1988, he founded Japan’s only permanent professional chamber orchestra, the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa.
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