The Japanese conductor, Noriteru Hamada, studied conducting under Seiji Ozawa's teacher, Norio Saitô.
Noriteru Hamada was (in mid 1970's to mid 1980) a professor at the University in Akenohoshi. In 1976, he founded the Japanese Oratorio Society (Japanischen Oratorien-Gesellschaft) consists of ten amateur choirs. They performed mainly music from the Baroque era (J.S. Bach, Monteverdi and others) and developed. Once a year during the Passion time they used to meet and to perform a community concert in Tokyo. They were in contact with Jürgen Jürgens, director of Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg. Through these connections the German-Japanese Society was established.
The Choir of the Japanese Oratorio Society conducted by Noriteru Hamada came to Europe for the first time in 1980, and performed in Lausanne, Zürich and Vienna J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) with great success. In their second European tour in May 1982, the Choir, consisting of about 90 singers, had appeared together with Bach-Collegium Tokyo and performed J.S. Bach Mass in B minor (BWV 232) at Festivals in Bordeaux, Kortrijk and Schaffhausen, before performing in Vienna, Nürnberg and Hamburg (at the Großen Musikhalle).
Noriteru Hamada is also a composer of a noted String Quartet. |