November 25th 3rd practice session @ Date City, Fukushima Prefecture

The third joint training session of the year was held in Date City, Fukushima Prefecture.

The venue was Date City Furusato Kaikan, and it was the first time since February of this year.

The usual chartered bus from Sendai Station picked up members from Fukushima Station on the way to the venue, which is about a 20-minute drive from Fukushima Station.

First, we had a meeting with the section leaders. Karin Hashimoto, who is to the right of Captain Akane Hatakeyama, explained about the crowdfunding initiative. In fact, today was Hashimoto's 21st birthday.

Practice began at 10:00. Conductor Toshio Yanagisawa came to give us guidance for the first time in two months since the summer training camp.

The morning practice piece is "L'oiseau de feu" (The Firebird) (composed by Stravinsky). It's nice to see the notes written on the score.

It's a song that's difficult to grasp the rhythm of, so Mr. Yanagisawa conducted while clapping his hands. There was something profound about the beginning of the first movement, and when I looked over, I saw that all eight of the contrabasses were playing a creaking sound. It was a youth orchestra with a deep bass sound.

On the other hand, there are only four violas in the front, which is a sad situation. Even including those who are absent today, there are seven violas... If you know any viola players from 4th grade elementary school to university students who experienced 3/11 in Iwate, Miyagi, or Fukushima, please invite them to join the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. We also welcome those who switch from violin. Thank you very much!

And once again the party was lively with the gifts we received.

The mother of Ishikawa Keika, a flute player in the first year of junior high school in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, gave us local sweets, including "Mamadoru," and apples from the orchard of the home of Hashimoto Yukiho, a trombone player in the first year of high school in Fukushima City, which were peeled by the mother of Ishii Aoiko, a cellist in the sixth year of elementary school in Koriyama City. Yanagisawa, who is in the photo, is from Nagano Prefecture and was initially hesitant, saying, "I was forced to eat apples for the rest of my life when I was a child," but after eating a slice, he said, "This is delicious!" and received the stamp of approval from the Shinshu native who was given the apple special education. Ishii, who spent nearly an hour cutting apples, said, "Tanaka Hirokazu was on TV a lot the other day. He was on every channel I turned for a few days." The other members of the orchestra also said the same thing. I'm sorry, I was forced to miss last month's joint practice session in order to preside over the long-awaited Tanaka Hirokazu National Athletic Convention 2017, but I was curious about the progress towards next year's concert.

When I asked Yanagisawa-san about the level they had reached during the lunch break, he was in high spirits, making peace signs and wearing a knitted cap, as he was also photographed eating lunch with a group of elementary, middle, high, and college students. I asked timidly, "Aren't they becoming quite good pieces?" He replied, "It was better than I expected. I can tell that everyone has been practicing hard. That's why I want to take it to a level where we can play it for the audience more before the real thing." I was relieved. At the summer training camp in August, he even said, "Shall we change the piece we're playing now? Should we stop playing either "The Firebird" or "The Sea?" So it seems that the results of the two joint practice sessions and two special string-only seminars that followed, as well as each individual's practice, are starting to show.

This is Hazuki Chiba, a first year graduate student from Sendai, protecting Seiya Kitagawa, a sixth grade violinist from Morioka, who was shy when the camera was pointed at her during lunch.

After the meal, she spread out her math homework and had the older girls check it for her. I guess her academic ability will improve if she joins the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. That's great! There was a team practicing during the same lunch break.

From the left, the group consists of five members: Fukuzumi Maon, a junior high school student playing trombone in Miyagi Prefecture; Sato Hikari, a fourth-year university student in Sendai; Yamazaki Yuko, a high school student in Fukushima City; Suzuki Minami, a junior high school student in Sendai; and Tomizawa Yuta, a university student from Iwaki City. They were practicing for a concert to be held on Saturday, December 2nd at the earthquake disaster public housing community center in Tokura, Minami Sanriku. Great! Great work! I'm in awe of the strong sense of mission of all the members. Now that I'm an adult, I can do stupid things without worrying. Thank you.

Well, in the afternoon we practiced Debussy's "La Mer". Many people said that this piece was even more difficult than "The Firebird", especially in terms of the strings.

Mr. Yanagisawa said, "If it comes down to it, let's play 'The Sea is Wide, It's Big.'"

No, it's come together so well that you can clearly tell it's Debussy's La Mer.
Tomo Hidezumi, a first-year high school student from Fukushima City, had been practicing hard to play the glockenspiel, which is considered particularly difficult in the second movement, and was praised by Yanagisawa.

Toh-kun, I'm sure it's not just my imagination that I feel like you're getting taller every time I see you. Good job, you're growing!
In the middle of the practice, the grandfather of Sakura Yoshida, a sixth-grade violinist from Morioka, offered to show us around the area, and we headed outside the hall.

Mr. Yoshida, whose parents were born in Tokyo and whose father was an aircraft engineer, was born two months after they evacuated to Date in February 1945, the end of the war. He began to speak with deep emotion, saying that if his parents had been there during the Great Tokyo Air Raid on March 10th, they would not be here today. Apparently, the Abukuma River on the right and the foot of the mountain on the left were the birthplace of the Date clan, and the city was named Date City in Fukushima Prefecture after that. The Date clan was transferred to Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture during the time of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then, during the Tokugawa period, they were ordered by Ieyasu to switch to Sendai, where they built the famous Date clan. With that move, it seems that the names Aobayama and Hirosegawa in nearby Fukushima Prefecture were also moved to Sendai. Mr. Yoshida, I wonder if he brought that up because he knew I have a strong interest in names. Anyway, I was able to hear about the history of Date City, Fukushima Prefecture. Thank you very much.

When I returned, the team on duty at Umi was blowing nonstop in another room.

From the right are Tomizawa-kun, who planned the independent concert in Minami Sanriku next month, Shinkawa Kazuhiro-kun, a first-year university student playing bass trombone, and Fujita Salem-kun, a second-year junior high school student playing trumpet from Morioka.

In the end, we practiced hard until 4:30 pm and then had a big cleanup session together.

Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone started helping out with transporting the percussion instruments after we purchased a full set with the funds we received from everyone?

The members then boarded a bus bound for Sendai Station via Fukushima Station.

Ms. Mikuko Hattori, a fourth-year university student from Fukushima who has just found employment, is making a peace sign with both hands. However, we are looking for more viola players! The members on the other side.

Sorry, Fukuzumi's peace sign is fine, but the shadows on the two girls in the front row are quite dark. Retake.

On the left in the first row is Natsumi Kidoguchi, a clarinetist from Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, who is currently attending a music college in Tokyo, and next to her on the right is Ai Hibino, a violinist and first-year university student from Sendai. It was good to see that both of them fit in well.

See you again at the joint practice session in December next month. There will be a lot going on next time, so I think all of you will regret it if you miss it.

To all of you who have happened to see this page, we would like to ask for your continued support for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

Hirokazu Tanaka, Tohoku Youth Orchestra Secretariat