Two and a half weeks have passed since the first joint practice last month, and the second joint practice was held at a school in Fukushima City on October 12th.

Of the 114 members, 94 participated.

For those who joined through additional recruitment, this was their first practice session and they seemed quite nervous, but as soon as they started making music it seemed as if they were all united in spirit.

Four members of the Tokyo Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra came to teach us this practice. The string section was led by Yoshiyuki Asami on violin, the woodwind section was led by Shin Sugiyama on clarinet, the brass section was led by Hiroki Yonekura on trombone, and the percussion section was led by Tatsushi Kimura on percussion. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come all the way to Fukushima.

We practiced in separate sections for one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon.

After that, everyone mobilized to move chairs, music stands, and instruments and performed together for the first time.

In the largest classroom where they practiced, everyone, including double basses, tubas, and percussion instruments, entered and performed the first movement of "Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5," also known as "Tchai 5"!!

Even in the largest classroom, nearly 100 people can fit in and play instruments.

Opening the windows would let in the cool breeze from the mountains, but in order to prevent the sheet music from flying away, they had to keep the doors closed while performing.It was a sweaty performance, but I'm sure they made many discoveries as they tuned their instruments.

When it came to performing as part of an orchestra, it seems they received a lot of advice from teachers of instruments other than their own.

The event ended just before 4:00 p.m., and we cleaned up and dispersed.

While we were waiting for the bus, people from Fukushima arrived one after another to pick us up, and as the sound of "Bye-bye!" rang out, it seemed that circles of friends and people playing the same instruments were forming here and there to chat.

Will it be colder by the next practice in November?

This time too, several people were absent due to illness.

Please take care to stay healthy until the main event in March.