This is a report on the 8th joint training session.

We held a joint practice session in Fukushima City on Saturday, January 19th and Sunday, January 20th. The first photo shows the welcome sign that was hung at the entrance of the "hotel" (or rather, the "ryokan" style inn) where the overnight group was staying. We are the "Tohoku Youth Ocean Straits."

The Fukushima Minpo hall that we always use as a joint practice venue is officially called the "Royal Hall" and is sometimes used as a wedding venue. For that reason, a huge Kabuki lion dance is placed on the stage curtain, giving off an unusual presence. It appears in many photos in this report, so I hope you will enjoy it as a hidden character. The scene of the orientation on the first day with Naomi Okada and Norimitsu Iijima from the secretariat is also gradually funny when you see it with the lion dance on your back.

It's amazing how any two people standing in front of this lion dance create an interesting composition.

When Technical Director Iijima announced the 2019 activity plan, the members shouted "Wow!" and "Wow!". Although we cannot announce it yet, the members are practicing hard for the concert in March of this year, and the next concert in March 2020 will be quite luxurious. Please look forward to it.

In the message from members section, Karin Hashimoto, who is in charge of crowdfunding, introduced the email newsletter that is provided as a thank you gift to members of the Supporters Club.

On this day, they printed out the e-mail newsletter and brought it to us as a file, which one of our members said was bound like "a drawing of a construction site."

However, the content is fun, with each section taking turns delivering a report each week, and full of insider information about the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

This is Viola's turn.

There's also a performance on the cello part.

This episode also features the double bass.

If you join the TYO Volunteer Concert Supporters Club for 800 yen per month, you will receive emails like this every Friday. Please consider joining to continue supporting the volunteer concerts run by the members themselves (there are currently only seven members...). Apply here .

The first day of the joint practice session in January will be an ensemble practice session under the direction of Yanagisawa Toshio.

In the morning, we practiced "Blu," directed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, which we are performing for the first time, and "Three TOHOK Songs" by Dai Fujikura, which we are performing for the third time.

Before the lunch break, we had a chance to hear from Masato Oshigi, the company's representative director, who had been attending practice since the morning.

In addition to being the president of Yamaha Music Japan, Oshiki-san also serves as the director of the Yamaha Wind Orchestra . He warmly encouraged the band members, saying, "Please continue to perform to cheer up not only the disaster-stricken areas, but the whole of Japan."

Even during the lunch break, some members stay behind to practice with Yanagisawa.

Clarinetist Mizuho Momiyama and oboeist Kana Watanabe were given instruction on the subtle nuances of tuning.

In the afternoon practice, Aya Nishina, who requested the Tohoku Youth Orchestra's first commissioned work, came from Sendai. At the beginning, she said that she would like to change the performance form and content of the piece a little, so she would like to explain that to me.

They explained that they were unable to fully understand the circumstances that made it difficult for all the members to gather for their monthly joint practice sessions (even on this day there were many absentees due to the flu and the national university entrance exams, etc.), but that it was difficult to create a piece that would make full use of the members' instrument arrangement, so they had decided that it would be difficult to develop the current new song in time for the performance in March.

The inspiration for this came from the beautiful sound of American composer Pauline Oliveros' "Tuning Meditation," which was performed by members at a workshop led by contemporary composer Dai Fujikura at a joint practice session held at the end of last year.

The explanation of the musical score went on to say that this is a piece in which everyone works together to create a single soundscape.

The score for the new song "Kugui no Sora" begins with the preparation before the performance. Kugui is the name of a migratory bird of the whooper swan that comes to Tohoku during the winter.

Before you start playing, please take three seconds to think of your favorite natural scenery in Tohoku. The light, the smell, the texture - what kind of scenery unfolds before you?
If we could eat our meals together with the Kuguis and spread our wings and soar into the vast spring sky, what kind of world would we see?

For this piece, the orchestra members followed the instructions in the score and layered acoustic sounds, sometimes improvising, to accompany a recording of an electronic soundscape that Nishina had composed in advance.

First, the members of the orchestra will listen to the recording that Nishina had prepared.

Nishina-san gave us some advice: Don't play in a way that stands out as the only one. Blend the sounds together and create a single 'kugui' sound.

While playing the sound materials prepared by Nishina, we tried to tune the sound under the direction of Yanagisawa. I got the impression that this would be a piece filled with the youthful experimental spirit that is characteristic of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

After the performance was finished, Nishina explained to the orchestra members an idiom that he liked to use, saying, "A crisis is an opportunity, and this is my favorite way of saying it in English." Perhaps I was hard of hearing or my English skills were lacking, but I couldn't hear what he said, so I asked Nishina about it, and he kindly wrote it down for me on a notepad on music paper.

A Blessing in disguise!

I would like to make this the motto of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. Thank you very much, Nishina-san!

During the break, graduate student Chiba Hazuki put her arm around the masked junior high school student duo, Suzuki Minami from Sendai and Kitagawa Risa from Morioka, and said, "I'm a junior high school student too!", and Yanagisawa Toshio also appeared in the photo.

I think Toshio Yanagisawa also felt a sense of accomplishment in the new "Kugui no Sora." He seemed very relaxed,

When I said, "I want everyone to dress like middle school students,"

They say that laughing increases the body's resistance, so this will keep the flu virus at bay.

These are the mothers of Haruka Watanabe, a double bassist attending a medical university in Fukushima and Aoi Ishii, a junior high school cellist who is a volunteer concert organizer.

The flyers designed by Watanabe were printed free of charge by Ishii-san, whose family runs a printing company. Ishii-san's sister is currently a third-year high school student and is taking a year off to study for entrance exams, but the Ishii family has been helping us since the founding of TYO. Thank you very much.

The rest of the afternoon was spent practicing the concert's main piece, Brahms' Symphony No. 2.

The members continued playing even after the first day of ensemble practice had finished.

The eldest brother, Yuta Tomizawa, was checking the performance with his arms folded. Even though it was a volunteer performance, he was particular about the quality of the performance. It was reliable.

After the practice, the three of them asked me to take a photo of them.

The three people who participated in this volunteer concert at the same Miyagi University of Education happened to be wearing crew-neck clothes of similar colors. As someone who likes coincidences, I was happy to record this.

On this day, in preparation for the next day's practice, about 30 people other than the Fukushima Zaiki group were accommodated in a hotel just a 10-minute walk away.

All I wanted was to have a meal and get a good night's sleep, so I was hoping for the hospitality of a "ryokan" rather than a "hotel," and this is just what I expected.

We had dinner in the large banquet hall.

The person to call out "Itadakimasu" was the youngest member, Taguchi Yota, a native of Morioka City, where the concert will be held.

Tomizawa Eldest Son, who was sitting next to me, declared, "Today I'm going to eat as much as I want" (without worrying about the cost of food), and began serving himself piles of rice.

I was silently counting next to him, and in the end he ate five bowls. I think this is important for preventing the flu.

The person in charge of calling out "thank you for the meal" was Shiori Tajima, a horn player and currently a student at a music college in Tokyo.

Thank you for the meal! At this point, it was 6:40pm. After that, we had free time, and those who wanted to could join the social gathering in the same hall. The rule was that anyone over 20 years old could drink alcohol.

These are two junior high school students, cellist Saito Reiri from Morioka City and violinist Kijima Yuta from Sendai City.

As a fan of coincidences, I couldn't help but take a photo of the way this hoodie was being worn.

This is a typical scene at the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, with university students teaching elementary and junior high school members.

Many of our university members are aiming to become teachers in the future, so this is good training for them.

After everyone had studied, played games, or drank in their own way, we gathered for breakfast the next day at five minutes before eight o'clock.

Well, that's about it.

However, after that, they all walked together in perfect unison, breathing out white air, to the practice venue, Fukushima Minpo Newspaper Company.

We will be practicing for the volunteer concert in the morning before the orientation starting at 9:30.

Ryo Muraoka, who usually plays the viola, switched to the cello and was practicing.

On the second day, four members of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra came to visit us and we had a section rehearsal, so we moved tables in a restaurant that is not normally used for practice and turned it into an impromptu practice venue.

This is a careful step that will allow for later restoration to its original state without changing the layout of the restaurant.

And here, Hibino Ai, a second-year university student from Sendai, was providing attentive instruction to the violinists, including junior high, high school, and college students, who were not taking part in the section rehearsal of Brahms' Symphony No. 2.

Although he is gentle, he has a passion that reminds me of Shuzo Matsuoka, who would say things like, "Play that part more firmly," so I named the school "Passionate! Hibino School."

Just before them, Ichikawa Mana, an elementary school student from Morioka, Iwabuchi Rina, a junior high school student, and Kijima from Sendai had formed a circle for self-practice.

I feel like the expressions in everyone's eyes have changed as the performance approaches.

For section practice, we were able to receive instruction from a professional instructor who works for the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, who came to Fukushima City.

The string section will feature violinist Miyagawa Masayuki, following on from the summer training camp.

Sakahashi Yanami, a flute player from the woodwind section, also gave us instruction following the summer training camp.

The percussion section is led by Funasako Yuko.

And the brass section is headed by Tetsuya Otsuka.

These are all teachers who have taught me many times before.

On this day, we were taught thoroughly from morning until evening.

Just after 3pm, a member of the woodwind section came to call me and said, "The teacher says there are no more pieces to practice," so I went to see the practice room. When I got there, I found that the teacher was teaching Ryuichi Sakamoto's "The Last Emperor," which was not scheduled to be performed at this concert.

He gives instructions using his own unique imaging style, saying, "The three chords here are the Chinese imperial chord," and "Think of the color yellow here."

More gestures and movements were added.

At that time, someone shouted, "You've got a Chinese bun in your head!"

Sakahashi Yanami's instruction is always serious but humorous. The remaining 15 minutes were used for a Q&A session with the teacher. He answered serious questions about the importance of experiencing the real thing and the rigors of being a professional.

Apparently they also practiced the shout-outs for "Three TOHOKU Songs," and he commented that "the woodwind section is probably the best."

Thank you very much to the four teachers from the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come to Fukushima City.

There was a group that stayed behind to practice even after the two days of practice was over and the students had cleaned up.

The students worked hard on the pieces to be performed in the lobby concert at the actual concert.

Next month in February, we will be able to hold three volunteer concerts. Each will be an opportunity to reaffirm the significance of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra's existence.

First of all, we will be able to hold Iwate Prefecture's first voluntary concert ahead of the Morioka performance in March.

Date and time: Sunday, February 3rd, 13:00~

Location: Yahaba Park, Yahaba Town , Iwate Prefecture

We will also be taking part in an event organised by a project to preserve for future generations the memory of the Great East Japan Earthquake in the Okawa district of Ishinomaki City, the site of the "Okawa Elementary School Tragedy" where 74 children lost their lives.

I have been given the opportunity to perform as part of an event supported by Nakajima Miyuki, a reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun who is a long-time acquaintance of director Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Date: Sunday, February 10

Location: Futago Higashi Assembly Hall, Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture (3-24 Futago, Ishinomaki City)

The performance will take place at an event that will also commemorate the publication of the record book "Okawa District Hometown Memories," which compiles the testimonies interviewed from local residents when the models were being made.

Another thing was introduced by Fukushima Minpo.

Date and time: Sunday, February 23rd, 11:00am

Location: Fukushima Prefecture, Koriyama City, Tomioka Town Social Welfare Council, Otagaisama Center

Currently, most of the evacuees are either living in nearby public housing for reconstruction or renting apartments on their own, and there are very few of them in temporary housing. However, they created an opportunity for us to perform at the tea parties they regularly gather for.

We believe that being invited to such an event gives us a deeper meaning in continuing the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. We hope that you will continue to feel free to contact us in the future.

This is getting long.

We appreciate your continued support for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.