This is a report from the 8th Volunteer Concert in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, which was the last of the year.

On February 23rd, we held our 8th volunteer concert at the Oda Kaisama Center in Tomita-cho, Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture.

I am Takahashi Kazumi, a second-year university student, and I will be writing this report on the flute section. This is my second time writing a report, following the report on the 5th Volunteer Concert held in Minami Sanriku. Thank you for your attention.

Now, I would like to give you a brief explanation about the Odaisama Center.

The nearest station to this facility is Koriyama-Toida Station, and the facility is about a 10-minute walk from the station.

The Odaisama Center is also called the Tomioka Town Life Recovery Support Center.

The people of Tomioka Town, located within a 20km radius of the nuclear power plant, were forced to evacuate the town due to the explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Having been forced to leave the land they had always lived in and their community torn apart, the townspeople felt anxiety and anger after the disaster. In order to save people's lives amid this chaos, the Odai-sama Center was opened.

This was the first time we held a volunteer concert at the Odai-sama Center, with 13 performers ranging from fifth graders to fourth-year university students.

Members coming from Fukushima City took the train, while those coming from Koriyama were driven by their parents to Koriyama-Toda Station or the venue, and they all gathered at the Odai-sama Center at 9:00 a.m.

Participants from Fukushima City walked from Koriyama-Toida Station to the facility.

As I mentioned earlier, the map said it was a 10-minute walk from Koriyama-Toda Station to the Oda-Gai-sama Center. However, I got lost and ended up taking a detour that took about 20 minutes...

Although we got lost, we chatted happily and made it safely! (laughs)

(I was directionally challenged, so I had to ask for everyone's help. Thank you.)

It's very hard to walk around with an instrument.

Maybe it's not my place to say this as a flute player...

Seeing him walking around with his instrument, I was reminded once again that playing the double bass is particularly difficult.

After gathering at 9am, we were warmly welcomed by the staff of the Odai-sama Center and had a thorough rehearsal and meeting before the big day.

The entire performance was conducted by fourth-year university student Asuka Yoshida.

In addition to the overall performance,

Ensemble using keyboard harmonica

Flute and bassoon duet,

Contrabass trio etc.

We put together a lot of unusual ensembles.

One of the good things about volunteer work is that it allows us to form ensembles that are difficult to do under normal circumstances.

There were many other wonderful performances, including the first movement of "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" performed by a string quintet.

Many people came to the concert and we played "Furusato" as an encore.

The audience joined in singing along with the music, and the concert came to a close with the whole venue coming together as one.

As the audience was leaving, they said things like, "That was a wonderful performance," and "It was great," which made us very happy as the people who had put on this voluntary concert.

After the concert, we had the opportunity to join in a tea party held at the Odai-sama Center and interact with local people.

We were able to hear a wide range of topics, from music to stories about guests who have visited the Odai-sama Center in the past, and old stories from local people.

Even though we are active as the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, the reality is that we have few opportunities to interact with local people outside of volunteer activities.

However, I felt that being able to interact with local people and hear a variety of stories through volunteer concerts like this was an incredibly valuable experience.

On the way home, the group disbanded with the words of second-year university student Watanabe Haruka, who said, "The volunteer concert doesn't end until you get home!"

Those who took the train also returned home, being careful not to cause trouble for the people around them.

Lastly,

I would like to take this opportunity to

We would like to thank the staff of the Odaigasama Center for their cooperation in making this concert possible, the parents who drove the members to and from the venue or Koriyama Tomita Station, and everyone who listened to the performance.

This was the last volunteer concert of the season.

We have been able to hold as many as eight concerts, and all the volunteer concert organizers feel that we have been able to carry out meaningful activities. We hope that we will continue to increase the number of things we can communicate through music, so that more people will know about the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, without being satisfied with our own activities.

The Tohoku Youth Orchestra's next activity will be concerts in Morioka and Tokyo in March.

All members of the orchestra will practice hard in preparation for the concert.

We appreciate your support.

Takahashi Kazumi (Fukushima Prefecture, flute section, second year university student)