The Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa appears at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall as part of the Hungarian Japanese year of diplomacy: the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Imperial Japan entered diplomatic relations 140 years ago, and 50 years ago these were renewed. The activity of the Japanese orchestra is a symbol for the meeting of European and Far Eastern cultures and their Budapest programme reflects this. The repertoire of the ensemble, formed by the Ishikawa district and city of Kanazawa, has as the backbone of its repertoire music of the European classical-romantic styles. But in their programmes, Japanese contemporary music is also allotted a prominent role: the orchestra is associated with the world première of over fifty pieces, the majority it commissioned. In 2005, the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa was the resident orchestra at the top Schleswig-Holstein Festival and performed with Jessye Norman and Thomas Zehetmair but it had previously worked with other major artists such as Hermann Prey, Peter Schreier, Philippe Entremont, Yo-Yo Ma, Salvatore Accardo and Gidon Kremer. Its principal guest conductor is the Leningrad born Dmitri Kitajenko, while the music director since 2007 has been Michiyoshi Inoue, who previously filled similar posts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. It was he who conducted the opening concert at the Suntory Hall when it opened in 1986.

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