On Saturday, February 27th, we held our sixth joint practice session at Paruse Iizaka Hall in Iizaka Onsen, Fukushima City. This was the last joint practice session of the year. Next up is the first concert at Tokyo Opera City after the last-minute training camp next month. In other words, there is less than a month until the performance...

The conductor of the concert, Toshio Yanagisawa, also took time out of his busy schedule to attend the concert, as he was due to travel to Sarajevo three days later. Yanagisawa's calm comment that "there really isn't much time left until the performance" filled me with a sense of urgency, and I felt nervous and my heart was racing. However, the rehearsal began with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. As I watched the conductor frequently stop the performance to give detailed instructions to each part, I could see that the structure and expression of the piece were being clearly corrected, and I felt a sense of hopeful relief, thinking, "It'll all work out!"

On this day, we were covered by two NHK TV programs (so two TV cameras!), Tokyo FM station J-WAVE, and the local newspaper Fukushima Minpo. The elementary school members have now become confident in being interviewed.

This time, the NHK program interview prompted three university students to visit the tsunami-affected areas, and they went to talk to university students who were working on reconstruction support activities in Ishinomaki recently, and to people who are still forced to live in temporary housing. Is it really okay for us, who suffered relatively little damage, to perform in Tokyo as representatives of the disaster-stricken areas? Can the Tohoku Youth Orchestra perform activities that are desired by those who are still suffering from the damage? With such fundamental questions in mind, we discussed among ourselves, and Yuto Nakamura, a university freshman from Sendai, brought a report to us in time for this joint practice session.

At the beginning of practice, Nakamura-kun conveyed a message to all the members that they should not worry about the dilemma that had been lingering, but should face the first concert with confidence. As people who experienced the same 3/11, we would like to think of those who still bear the scars of the damage, without being obsessed with the extent of the damage, and to be of some help through the music we can perform. I hope that the members will share such feelings and make the first concert a success. In fact, we have received various support for this activity from individuals and companies. It is also proof that many people have high expectations that the Tohoku Youth Orchestra will be of help to the disaster-stricken areas.

During the lunch break, we watched footage of the site edited by Kaho Narayama, a first-year university student from Sendai who also visited Ishinomaki. I was struck by the reality of the situation.

This is an interview with Kana Matsuzaki, a member of the horn band, that was published in the March issue of the monthly piano magazine. I guess there isn't a monthly horn magazine.

In the afternoon, we tried our hand at a new piece of music. We practiced a piece called "ETUDE," a song from the 1980s directed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose title means "practice."

I'm looking forward to the encore song performed by guest Yamashita Yosuke and director Sakamoto Ryuichi.

At the end of the practice session, the orchestra was introduced to the father of Riko Ishii, a sixth-grade cellist from Koriyama, who runs a printing company, and who offered to print the sheet music covers for the performance free of charge.

The Tohoku Youth Orchestra exists solely thanks to your kind support and generosity. Thank you so much.

At dusk, we all boarded the bus to Fukushima Station and Sendai Station. The next time we met was at a training camp just before the performance. I wonder if it would be okay (in many ways).

My daughter, a first grade elementary school student who I brought from Tokyo, chased after the bus, so Aoi Nogi, a third-year university student from Sendai who plays percussion, opened the window and waved to us, even though it was cold. Members of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, please practice without hesitation for the performance. Many people are looking forward to your wonderful performance.