About Pacific Music Festival

Leonard Bernstein came to Sapporo in 1990 with a specific idea: build a summer music academy in Asia modelled on what Tanglewood had done for a generation of American musicians. He wanted young players from across the world to spend a concentrated period working with the best orchestral musicians alive, then perform what they had learned in public concerts open to everyone. He died that same year, four months after the first festival ended. PMF has run every summer since, carrying that founding structure forward.

The festival's unusual strength is its faculty. PMF Vienna is made up of string players from the Wiener Philharmoniker. PMF Berlin brings wind and percussion principals from the Berliner Philharmoniker. These are not masterclass visitors who fly in for a weekend. They are in Sapporo for the full three weeks, in sectionals and chamber rehearsals with the fellows every day. The PMF Orchestra that performs at Kitara is genuinely the product of that work. Not a pre-assembled ensemble that rehearses for a week before the concerts.