In 2000, Seiji Ozawa founded Ongaku-juku with the goal of nurturing young musicians through opera.
One of Ozawa's mentors, Maestro von Karajan, used to say, "Symphony and opera are the two inseparable supports of music." Ozawa made this his philosophy and puts it into practice once a year with the Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-juku. The first six years of the event featured an opera, while in 2006 a symphony was performed for the first time.