TMC to Hold 2013 Toyota Master Players Concert Series

Tohoku Charity Concerts to be Held as Part of Kokoro Hakobu Project

Toyota City, Japan, —Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announces that, as part of its social contribution activities in support of arts and culture, it will hold a series of classical-music concerts featuring 30 principal musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Seven Toyota Master Players concerts will be held in seven cities throughout Japan between March 30 and April 9, 2013, with tickets to go on sale nationwide through Cnplayguide and other ticket agencies on December 1, 2012.

These concerts, held since 2000, will be held for the eleventh time in 2013 with special cooperation from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra.

Tickets will be reasonably priced to give as many people as possible the opportunity to appreciate world-class music performances.

In continuation from last year’s concerts, all ticket sales proceeds from the Morioka and Sendai performances will be donated to educational funds for orphaned children in three Tohoku region prefectures—Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima—as part of the Kokoro Hakobu Project’s initiative for disaster relief.

The 2013 series comprises six Wien Premium Concerts, featuring the “Toyota Master Players, Wien”, in Sapporo, Morioka, Sendai, Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka and a Wien Grand Concert in Nagoya with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to a performance of Beethoven’s seventh symphony without a conductor, the Wien Premium Concerts will have a varied program that also includes performances of works by Wagner and Verdi featuring Japanese and Viennese soloists to mark the 200th anniversary of the composers’ births. The Wien Grand Concert will have an ambitious program featuring Mahler’s fifth symphony conducted by Tadaaki Otaka.

Instrumental and vocal soloists scheduled to appear include well-known Japanese pianist Michie Koyama and viola player Naoko Shimizu and pianist Momo Kodama—both active on the international stage—and tenor Dimitrios Flemotomos from Greece, who has been invited from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra.

Ticket and concert information is available from the Toyota Master Players Secretariat at +81-3-5210-7555.

Additionally, a special program will run throughout the series to encourage musical appreciation in people 24 years of age and below, who will be able to apply for complimentary tickets to the Toyota Master Players concerts and public rehearsals, with special visiting concerts also to be held at elementary schools and child welfare facilities. Complimentary ticket availability and the visiting concerts will be publicly advertised.

Information (in Japanese) regarding this program can be found at http://www.toyota.co.jp/tomas13/ from December 1, 2012.