All that remains is a report on the second day of the joint practice session, which was the last one before the concert.

The second day of the February joint practice session was the last ensemble practice session before the March concert in 2018. Thanks to the fact that we were able to stay at a very nice lodging run by JA Kyosai, which is about 30 minutes by bus from the practice venue in Fukushima City, we were able to practice one hour earlier than usual today, starting at 9am.

The instructor/conductor is Takeda Manabu from the Fukushima office. The reason for this small group is that the practice is for a team made up mainly of members from Miyagi Prefecture who will be performing at the event in the newspaper advertisement featured in the photo at the beginning of this article. This is because this year we were asked to perform at the Miyagi Prefecture memorial event that has been held every year on March 11th since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Mizuki Sone (horn, fourth-year university student) was photographed in a full-page advertisement placed last week in the Kahoku Shimpo newspaper, which is sponsoring the event, so we asked captain Hatakeyama Akane (violin, third-year university student), who is also from Sendai, to pick up the instrument. Since morning, they have been diligently practicing the songs they will be performing at the event, such as "The Last Emperor," "Yae no Sakura," and "Mother and I," all from director Sakamoto Ryuichi's films.
Applications to attend the "Yell for the Future 2018" event will be accepted until February 28th. Applications can be made online here . We hope you will come and enjoy the live performance by the special arrangement.

Well, on this day, we had a guest from Tokyo. First of all, he is the head of JA Kyosai, which has been providing us with a lot of support this time, and is the section chief of the Research and Public Relations Department and Business Public Relations Department of the National Headquarters of the National Kyosai Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, Mr. Masashi Hosokawa. He was introduced to the members by his official name.

As they attend the concert every year, there was a junior colleague taking a photo of me receiving words of encouragement as well as excitement for the pieces we would be performing this year.

Anyway, on the second day we were given lunch boxes for everyone.

In addition, there was a green paper bag given to each member.

As for what's inside?

Strawberries! What's more, the strawberries from Watari in Miyagi Prefecture, which is famous for its strawberries, are large and shiny.

And, one of our members will be working at JA Miyagi Watari this spring. Double bassist Hikaru Soga. "Wow, I'm so honored to have my picture taken with such an important person!" she said.

We were able to take a great photo of two JA seniors and juniors promoting their local specialties.

During the lunch break, we had packed our bentos and strawberries, and a professional photography team had arrived from Tokyo.

These are people from the advertising agency I&S BBDO who came to create an advertisement for JA Kyosai, which supports the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

Judging from the camerawoman's stance, it's clear that this is a serious shoot.

We had informed everyone in advance that there would be an advertisement shoot, so the members were not wearing pajamas today.
Those in charge of everything other than the camera staff were working in the corner of the hall.

What he was doing was checking on a tablet the shooting data that was being sent in real time from the camera via Wi-Fi.

If you are familiar with the advertising industry, you should be able to answer the question: Which of the following jobs do these four people have? Creative director, art director, copywriter, and sales.

There's a wise saying at a certain advertising agency: "The job of a salesperson is to be in the field."

Now, it's lunchtime. The trumpet section leader, Yuto Nakamura (from Sendai, 4th year university student), is looking at the sheet music of Hidezumi Toh (3rd year high school student in Fukushima City, percussion). Toh has composed original pieces, a fanfare duo and a trio, for the opening of the past two concerts. The day before, I said to him, "I look forward to working with you again this year," and the next day, he brought me a fanfare for brass octet that he had composed.

I'm looking forward to seeing improved fanfare.

Also, during the lunch break, one group cut their meal short and got to work diligently on their practice. Thanks to the consideration of Mitsukoshi Isetan, who is sponsoring the concert, we have been given the opportunity to perform as a small ensemble at the Sendai Mitsukoshi store on Saturday, March 10th next month, as a way to promote the Sendai concert. Members from Sendai will be performing at an event in a prime location in their hometown's bustling downtown. More information will be announced at a later date.

On the second day, we practiced Stravinsky's "The Firebird 1919 version". By around 3pm on the second day, it was natural that we would all be exhausted during the break. We filmed a scene of the group exhausted, with a friendly and cohesive atmosphere typical of TYO, consisting of a mix of elementary school, junior high school, high school, and university students.

Due to a complaint from a member of the troupe, we also filmed a scene with a 10 year age difference between the two actors. They all make peace signs as if they had agreed to it.

Thinking that today would be the last joint practice session of the year, I felt a sense of nostalgia as the leader, so I took a photo of the carpet in the Fukushima Minpo headquarters hall, where we had borrowed the practice venue.

It seems that it has appeared many times in the photos of this year's joint practice report. I hope that all members of the group will set this image as their smartphone wallpaper to motivate themselves to practice on their own until the performance.

At the end of the practice session, we took a group photo for promotional purposes.

That's right, the tripod on the stage was there for this very purpose. I took the opportunity to snap a photo from the side with my smartphone.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the actual advertising photos turn out.

We will be trying something new for this year's concert. At the joint practice session in December, we were kindly able to hold a composition workshop by Dai Fujikura, a contemporary music composer who has been extremely active in recent years. After that, we discussed with Mr. Fujikura and Director Ryuichi Sakamoto, who introduced us to Mr. Fujikura, and decided to have the original pieces created by the members of the orchestra in the actual performance. Mr. Fujikura advocates the idea of being "born creative," or "bonkuri" for short, and that "all humans are born creative," and last year he held the Bonkuri Festival. At the concert in March, we will have a "Bonkuri Corner (tentative name)" where original solo pieces by members of the orchestra will be performed by members of the orchestra nominated by the composer. On the morning of the first day, we asked, "Those who never want to perform their own work, please come forward if you would like your work to be performed," and in the end, six people said they would like to perform their work in the actual performance. We introduced them at the end of the two days of practice.

From the left, the composers are Mana Ichikawa (5th grade elementary school student), Miyu Sato (3rd year university student), Momoka Kanno (1st year university student), Ayaka Kikuchi (1st year high school student), Fumie Suga (1st year university student), and Yuto Nakamura (4th year university student).

And as for the performers,

The Kanno piece will be performed by Kidoguchi Natsumi (clarinet, 4th year university student), the Suga piece by Isogai Hinako (horn, 2nd year university student), the Nakamura piece by Chiba Daiki (horn, 3rd year university student), and the Kikuchi piece by Sato Mimu (violin, 3rd year university student), who will also perform his own piece. On this day, the Ichikawa piece was performed by Watanabe Masahiro (violin, 3rd year high school student), and the Sato piece by Honda Kenmaru (cello, 1st year high school student), who were unable to attend the practice.

We would like to assign three pieces each to the Tokyo and Sendai performances, taking into consideration the hometowns of the composers and performers.

We would also like to announce the results of the donations we solicited from our members over the two days.

Sakura Onami, the crowdfunding representative (a second-year student from Date City, Fukushima Prefecture, currently attending a university in Tokyo), thanked the group for their cooperation and reported on the project. The project is to raise the actual costs, such as transportation fees, to hold a volunteer concert in the disaster area. The project is still ongoing on the crowdfunding site JAPAN GIVING until the 24th, but they called for support from members who cannot attend the concert.

We placed a donation box at the practice venue, and the results were:

The total was 15,852 yen. Everyone applauded for this amount, which exceeded expectations!

And the interview I did with Fukushima Minpo yesterday was published in an article.

We have had more articles uploaded thanks to Hoshi-san from Fukushima Minpo, who worked on the weekends over the past two days.

You can read the electronic article here.
https://www.minpo.jp/news/detail/2018021149093

After two long days of practice, we will all gather together for the last training camp before the concert. All members should practice independently and be in top physical condition, and we will see you at this year's training camp.
We look forward to all of you reading this article joining us at the Tokyo and Sendai venues.

We appreciate your continued support for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra!