Pacific Music Festival

The Pacific Music Festival (パシフィック・ミュージック・フェスティバル) is an international classical music festival held annually in Sapporo, Japan. It was founded in 1990 by Leonard Bernstein, who had originally planned for it to be held in Beijing. The original artistic directors were Leonard Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas. Subsequent artistic directors have included Christoph Eschenbach and Fabio Luisi, and principal conductors have included Charles Dutoit, Bernard Haitink, Valery Gergiev, Nello Santi, Riccardo Muti, Fabio Luisi, and Jun Märkl. Principals and performers from major orchestras in Europe and America, as well as soloists, serve as faculty, providing 4 weeks of instruction to young musicians from around the world who are selected through auditions. During the festival, performances of the PMF Orchestra, in addition to those of various chamber ensembles made up of students and faculty, are frequent and well attended.