We performed at the 3.11 Great Earthquake Memorial Event in Miyagi Prefecture.

On Sunday, March 11th, we were invited to take part in the 7th Great East Japan Earthquake Memorial Event, hosted by Miyagi Prefecture and the Kahoku Shimpo newspaper, and a group of 32 people, mostly from Miyagi Prefecture, performed.

The venue will be Tokyo Electron Hall Miyagi (Miyagi Prefectural Civic Center) in Sendai, the same place as the Sendai performance on the 31st of this month.

The participants gathered in the dressing room one after another. There was a copy of the Fukushima Minpo newspaper that was featured on a full page the other day.

Rehearsals had just begun and it was already 2:46pm. We stopped practice and held a minute's silence for the victims.

I reflected on the significance of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra's existence and was once again reminded of my commitment.

We went back to rehearsals, focused so that we could perform confidently and well during the actual performance.

The conductor for today's performance was Manabu Takeda from the Fukushima office, who is usually a lecturer at the FTV Junior Orchestra.

She is popular with the other members of the troupe for her playfulness in sucking in her stomach when the camera is pointed at her on stage before rehearsals.

The rehearsal is proceeding smoothly.

We were able to practice all five songs that we would be performing in the performance, which lasted just under 30 minutes.

Here are the expressions of the members as they changed into their stage costumes for the performance.

You can see that almost everyone gives the peace sign when the camera is pointed at them.

We spoke to Takeda before the show.

I feel happy to be able to stand on stage like this. I saw a parent and child playing catch at Kotodai Park nearby, and a family shopping on Jozenji Street, and I saw everyday scenes. I feel that it is best to be able to eat a full meal, sleep on a futon, and lead a normal life, even though it may seem ordinary. My place was not affected by the tsunami, but I feel happy that I have a normal life.
I'm happy to be able to perform like this. I hope everyone listens to the performance while savoring all the different emotions.
Looking back at Ryuichi Sakamoto's music, I felt that even though it was written for a movie, it has a deep capacity to accept our imagination. War appears in all of his movies, including "The Last Emperor," "Yae no Sakura," and "Living with Mother." I think that these movies express the will of the characters who continue to live despite being at the mercy of the times, such as war, and the situations that they cannot resist.

In stark contrast to the nervous look on Takeda's face, the other members of the group were

The members here are on the left and right. And the members on the right are on the right.

Everybody was relaxed.

And now the real thing begins.

The songs are three from director Ryuichi Sakamoto's works: "The Last Emperor," "Yae no Sakura," and "Mother and I."

And the Tohoku Youth Orchestra will be playing Director Sakamoto's "Litany" for the first time. On March 11th last year, when we visited Ishinomaki for a volunteer concert, Yuto Nakamura, a third-year university student, played the trumpet at Hiyoriyama Park, which overlooks the city. Nakamura, who is from Sendai, arranged the piece to fit today's lineup.

The final piece was "Early Spring" (composed by Leroy Anderson).

After the performance, the members returned to the wings of the stage.

Takeda was all smiles, satisfied with his performance.

At the end of the concert, all the performers, along with a representative from the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, came out and sang "Furusato" together with everyone in the audience.

Since it was such a good opportunity, we took a commemorative photo with the representative and the host, Koichi Yamadera (Miyagi Goodwill Ambassador).

March 11th was a very memorable day for me. I would like to thank the Kahoku Shimpo for giving me the opportunity to appear and everyone who attended.