The Emperor's Birthday is celebrated on December 23rd.

The previous day, the 22nd, was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

Since ancient times, known as prehistoric times, this day has been a special occasion.

Christmas, which is said to be the birthday of Christ, is also said to have originated from the winter solstice festival.

Celebrating the sun's turnaround from its most debilitating days

The history of the celebration of "Death and Rebirth" is

It may be something that has been going on since before human history.

Fitting for such a new beginning,

The Tohoku Youth Orchestra gathered at a school in Fukushima City.

The fourth joint training session was held.

Finally, Yanagisawa Toshio (front row, right), who will be conducting in March of next year, arrived.

Based in the ethnic conflict zones of the Balkans,

Mr. Yanagisawa, who organizes and manages the orchestra,

This will be my first participation since the training camp in Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture in August.

We board a chartered bus from Fukushima Station and head to the practice venue.

In the morning, we split into different sections for practice.

Today we were joined by four teachers from the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

The brass instrument player is Mori Hirofumi on horn.

The string section is performed by Maeda Naonori.

The percussion section is performed by Idegami Tatsuya.

And sorry for the poor quality of the picture through the glass.

The woodwind section is directed by Masayoshi Ikukata.

In the afternoon, Professor Yanagisawa gave another speech.

We also introduced some staff members who were participating for the first time.

One of them.

The person was sitting in a school-like space between the shoe lockers, with his arms folded in front of a keyboard.

That's right, Ryuichi Sakamoto, the representative and director of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra,

First time participating in joint practice!

The concert started with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

Next, we practiced Director Sakamoto's "The Last Emperor."

Of the approximately 100 members of the group, only three saw the film.

Is "There were three of them" the correct impression?

This Bernardo Bertolucci masterpiece is a must-see.

I almost asked, "Would you like to show us your DVD?"

In addition, the currently released movie "Living with My Mother" will be performed at the concert.

Moreover, it will be read by Sayuri Yoshinaga! So,

To all members,

Practice your instrument and watch movies at the same time.

So, about "The Last Emperor"

Director Sakamoto himself talked about the story of the film and the background to the composition, and then it was time for the ensemble performance.

I think it was a pretty good performance considering it was their first time playing together.

In fact, I find the awkwardness refreshing, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out when it's performed.

There was also media coverage that afternoon.

We had asked everyone to wear clothes that they would be happy to appear on TV, so

Everyone seemed happy.