This is a report on the third joint training session in July.

The rainy season had ended and a joint training session was held in Fukushima City on Sunday, July 1st, where the maximum temperature was 35 degrees. The temperature was higher and more humid than in Tokyo, so it felt like a very hot day.

Before practice, the section leaders gathered to hear opinions about this year's voluntary concert and the crowdfunding that will make it a reality.

Yui Arakawa (double bass), who is from Shirakawa City, Fukushima Prefecture and has been participating since the first stage, explained the policy. The secretariat plays a supporting role to thoroughly discuss how to receive everyone's understanding and support and to make it a good initiative.

And then, the orientation for today's practice. First, a message was read out from Director Ryuichi Sakamoto, who toured Europe last month in Germany, Spain, and the UK. The message was filled with the expectation that the students would understand the composer's thoughts and learn the overall structure of the piece through Brahms' Symphony No. 2, which was the main piece this year. Thank you for teaching us remotely despite your busy schedule.

Various announcements were made by Naomi Okada from the secretariat.

Today, conducted by Yanagisawa Toshio, the practice began with the first movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 2.

During the break, booklets for this year's summer training camp will be distributed and there will be an information session for participants.

Since the first year, the summer training camp has been held in Miyakojima City, Okinawa Prefecture, Sapporo City, Hokkaido, and Ishigakijima City, Okinawa Prefecture. This year, contrary to expectations that it would be held in Hokkaido or Okinawa again, it will be held in Ryuo, Nagano Prefecture.

This year, we will be inviting members of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, who have been cooperating with us since the project's launch, to come and practice parts, and we hope to further enrich our musical activities through the "music camp" concept.

Speaking of Nagano Prefecture, it is also the hometown of conductor Toshio Yanagisawa.

Mr. Yanagisawa, Captain Isogai Hinako and Ms. Tajima Shiori, both horn players and music college students living in Tokyo, discussed sweets.

On the other hand, he makes a comment about the math homework of Seiya Kitagawa (violin) from Morioka, who was in the fourth grade when he met her, asking, "Oh, you're in junior high school already?"

As always, we are deeply grateful for your excellent response to such a wide range of age groups.

And then, a relaxed lunch break.

Ms. Keika Ishikawa (flute), a junior high school student from Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture (pictured on the far left of the photo), even brought gifts for the band members using her own pocket money.

Apparently her favorite candy is from Komeda Coffee, which originated in Nagoya. Thank you very much. Don't worry too much, just spend your pocket money on yourself.

As always, there were the vegetarian lunch crowd.

During one of these lunch breaks, I noticed one member having some materials spread out on his desk, writing on a document.

Even though my whole body was sending out signals saying "Leave me alone," I felt the urge to call out to her and ask, "What are you doing?"

Fumiho Kono, a flute player, is currently in the second week of a three-week internship at the Iwaki City Health and Welfare Center to obtain a qualification. Speaking of Kono, I remember a fine performance he did on the first day of practice just before the concert at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in March this year, when he took the pulse of a bleeding band member who had been cut on the forehead by a cymbal and then handed him over to an ambulance. As a fourth-year student at the Fukushima Medical University School of Nursing, he aims to obtain both a public health nurse and a nurse. Right now, he says, "It's hard, but I find joy in it. I feel rewarded by listening to the concerns of hospitalized people and local people." Although I was worried about interrupting him, I intuitively asked, "Can I interview you?" and he replied, "Oh, I'm happy. Thank you." I decided to listen to his story after I had finished lunch.

I always ask the question: What was 311 doing?

I was in my second year of junior high school at the graduation ceremony for my hometown, Iwaki City. I went home in the morning, and in the afternoon I was relaxing in the kotatsu, watching a TV drama and playing games. When I was alone with my mother, a big tremor came, the biggest one I had ever experienced. Our house was a 50-year-old one-story house, so we ran out of the house because it was dangerous. The house next door was a junior high school, and the pool water was flowing toward the house. In fact, the beach was just a two-minute walk from our house. There was no damage from the tremor, but when I turned on the TV, which I had left on, I was surprised to see that instead of the usual "tsunami warning," it was the first "major tsunami warning." Since elementary school, we had been doing evacuation drills to escape to higher ground if a tsunami came, so I escaped with my mother to Inari Shrine on a nearby hill. The waves came after a huge low tide. It was a scene I had never seen before. It wasn't even heavy rain. It was really scary, and I was shocked to see the waves really coming. The waves came up to the knees of the adults who had escaped to higher ground. I wanted to wait until the tides subsided before checking out my house, but I ended up staying at a nearby temple that night.
The next day, I went to see the house. The inside was full of sand. I was stunned to see the house in such a different state. The asphalt on the road had peeled off, and it seemed that seawater had broken the glass and entered the house. Uniforms and bags that had been carelessly placed on the floor were washed away. All the electrical appliances were unusable, and my house was "largely partially destroyed." When I went around the neighborhood with my mother, we found someone collapsed at the entrance of a neighbor's house. They had died.

As Kono tried to hold back her overwhelming emotions, I asked her, "I'm sorry to hear about your painful memories. Can I hear a little more?" to which she replied, "I'm glad you wanted to listen to me."

How did your experience of 3/11 change you?

I stayed at the temple where we evacuated that day for a week, and then spent about three weeks at my brother's university apartment in Tokyo, where he lives with his mother, due to the nuclear accident. I returned to Iwaki City because school was to resume around April 10th, but shortly after that, there was an aftershock of magnitude 6 in Iwaki City. At that time, everyone at school was trying to guess the intensity of the aftershocks. Looking back, it was strange. After that, we moved into my father's company housing a few years later, and since it was impossible to build a house in the coastal area, and our house was in an area that could be rebuilt, we built a small two-story house in case another tsunami came. That is my parents' house now.

In my rebellious teenage years, I suddenly found myself unable to live in my own home. I realized that I was living with the help and support of many people, and my perspective on society changed. It is often said that children in the rural areas of Fukushima's Hama (Dori district) tend to be unruly. I think I would have become rebellious if I had continued to do so. In fact, I saw a brisk nurse who came to help with nursing care at the school evacuation shelter on 3/11, and I thought she was cool, so that's why I decided to become a nurse. If it hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have thought about becoming a public health nurse.

I joined the brass band in junior high school, and I still use the flute that I was given at that time. I kept the instrument at school, so it wasn't washed away by the tsunami. After the disaster, music on the radio cheered me up. I think music can give you energy when you're feeling down.

What kind of activities would you like to do with Tohoku Youth Orchestra in the future?

We hope that those who experienced the earthquake, and children who were affected after some time has passed, are not simply living their lives as if nothing had happened, but that people of all ages from the three prefectures will participate with passion, and through music will not let the memories of the earthquake be forgotten, and that they will continue to live their lives in good spirits, without giving up, and will send a message to Japan and the world.

Thank you, Mr. Kono, for talking to me about something difficult to say when I was in the middle of my training and feeling stressed. In return, I was saved when you said, "Thank you for letting me talk."

In the afternoon we continued practicing Brahms' Symphony No. 2, also known as "Brahms 2."

In response to Director Sakamoto's message, Yanagisawa explained the structure of the piece that Brahms constructed according to sonata form, including first theme, modulation, second theme, codetta, coda, etc.

Following the morning practice of the first movement, we moved on to the difficult second movement. First, we focused on the cello.

He carefully directed the young people, saying, "It's a melody that can only have a deep tone if you have a variety of life experiences."

After the second movement, we moved on to the fourth movement, and a hot day immersed in "Brahmen's Symphony No. 2" passed.

After the next summer training camp in August in Shinshu, there will be no joint practice sessions until September 2nd. For those members who cannot participate in the summer training camp, please practice individually!

To everyone viewing this page, we would like to ask for your continued support for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.