Joji Hattori, Dirigent & Moderation

© Anna Stöcher

Joji Hattori, Dirigent & Moderation

Joji Hattori, the Intendant of the Vienna Opera Summer at Belvedere, enjoys a multifaceted career as an artist. Not only is he renowned as a conductor and violinist, but also as an entrepreneur of new, innovative projects. Additionally, he increasingly devotes himself to supporting young musical talents.

Born in Japan in 1969, Joji Hattori spent his childhood in Vienna. There, regular opera and concert visits, as well as countless chamber music evenings with leading Viennese musicians, shaped his musical development. He studied violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under Rainer Küchl, and later continued his studies with Yehudi Menuhin and Vladimir Spivakov. In 1989, he won the International Menuhin Violin Competition in England. After a decade of soloist activity, he participated in the inaugural Lorin Maazel Conducting Competition in New York in 2002, where he won one of the main prizes; a crucial component of this prize was the opportunity to study intensively with Lorin Maazel for two years.

From 2004 to 2017, Joji Hattori served as Permanent Guest Conductor, and from 2018 to 2024 as First Guest Conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, with which he has performed on numerous tours in over 20 countries. Additionally, he was First Guest Conductor and Co-Intendant of the Balearic Symphony Orchestra (Palma de Mallorca) from 2015 to 2019. As a guest conductor, Hattori has led numerous prestigious orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Vienna Symphony, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and many leading symphony orchestras in Japan.

Joji Hattori made his operatic conducting debut in 2004 at the Kammeroper Wien with Mozart's "La Finta Giardiniera." From 2007 to 2008, he served as First Kapellmeister at the Theater Erfurt, and from 2009 to 2021 as Chief Conductor and Musical Director of the open-air opera/operetta summer festival in Kittsee. In 2009, he conducted three performances of "The Magic Flute" at the Vienna State Opera. He has also worked repeatedly at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Japan's first opera house.

In addition to his concert activities, Joji Hattori is the President of Musica Juventutis Austria, Vice President of the International Menuhin Violin Competition, and since 2003 an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Furthermore, he studied Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford (St. Antony College) and is dedicated to research in the field of national identities. Since 2015, he has also been the proprietor of Shiki, an exclusive Japanese restaurant in Vienna.