From CNN.COM:

   Ozawa to leave Boston Symphony after 2002 season
   June 23, 1999
   Web posted at: 2:00 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT)

   BOSTON (AP) -- Seiji Ozawa, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's longtime
   conductor and music director, will leave Boston after the 2002 season
   to become conductor at the Vienna State Opera.

   The formal announcement was expected Wednesday in Vienna.

   Ozawa, 63, has led the symphony since 1973.  He has been the
   longest-running music director in the orchestra's 117-year history.

   In a letter to his colleagues, Ozawa said he wanted to pursue his
   interest in operatic music.

   "My relationship with the great Boston Symphony Orchestra has and
   continues to be the most rewarding artistic experience that a musician
   could ever hope to have," he said.  "However, in my own growth as a
   musician, I increasingly have come to love the operatic repertoire."

   Last winter, Ozawa conducted Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" in Boston.
   He has also appeared as a regular guest conductor with major opera
   companies such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York and La Scala in
   Milan.

   Boston Symphony Orchestra Managing Director Mark Volpe told the Boston
   Herald that a search committee comprised of trustees, orchestra
   members and staff would be formed to search for a successor.

   "The orchestra is in good, stable financial health and, artistically
   speaking, it's highly regarded," he said.  "So it'll be a very
   interesting process."

   The announcement comes at the end of a season-long celebration of
   Ozawa's quarter-century spent with the orchestra.  On July 4, he is
   scheduled to lead the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra in its traditional
   "1812 Overture."

   Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.  All rights reserved.

Ron Chaplin