The end of the camp, where hard practice continued from morning to night, was supposed to be a recreational event planned and managed by the university students themselves... Unable to bear it any longer, Director Ryuichi Sakamoto stepped forward next to the MC and volunteered to play the role of assistant director. The great director had suddenly become the AD. This is the freedom of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. Today, the members had breakfast at 6:30 in the morning and started practicing at 8. Just as they were exhausted from working closely with Yosuke Yamashita and Director Sakamoto, another gift arrived.

Yuji Arakawa, who wrote the music commentary for tomorrow's first concert program, and the president of NexTone sent us a huge gift of cream puffs. Seeing the continued bean paste dishes in yesterday's blog, we made a strategic side change to cream-based dishes! There is a lot to learn from the adult gift battle, members of the orchestra. It was a big hit with everyone who was looking for calories.

The Tohoku Youth Orchestra has shed its skin yesterday, and the conductor, Toshio Yanagisawa, who is calmly and calmly giving instructions to correct the performance without loosening the reins, is now smiling with ease. Before the practice started, I took a photo with the viola college student, Mikuko Hattori, who was sitting in front of me, on the countdown board made by the orchestra members.

The words "Everyone wake up!!" speak volumes about how little sleep everyone had. All that was left was to revise and improve tomorrow's biggest piece, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. Then, I noticed this graffiti on the whiteboard!

Are you running away from "Chai 5"?! (If you are curious about what "Chai 5" is, please refer to our previous article.)

Maestro Yanagisawa gave very detailed instructions and an explanation of the slavic scale, which everyone absorbed like a sponge and incorporated into their playing.

The clock is about to strike six in the evening,

"Okay, let's finish," said the maestro.

When I asked, "Is the joint practice over?", he replied, "Yes, we finished it."

I asked about it on the way to the restaurant and was told it was at a level beyond my imagination.

I'm no longer embarrassed, and I can perform in front of the audience with confidence. Children's ability to absorb new information is amazing.

Now we head to the venue for the last supper before the main event.

Perhaps due to a sense of accomplishment, the team members showed an appetite that was just as strong as that of the more athletic members.

yeah?!

University students Tsubasa Kono on trombone and Keita Sato on horn. That must have been way too high-calorie for them, even though they both worked their lungs and arms hard during the day.

After the meal, we started to carry out the instruments in preparation for our trip to Opera City early the next morning. It was a great calorie-burning exercise for everyone! We took the timpani down from the third floor.

Please bring your own instruments. The recreational competition mentioned at the beginning began in the practice room.

The event started with the hosting of Akane Hatakeyama and Miyu Sato, the university student leaders who planned and organized the event. First, the participants were divided into groups and introduced themselves.

Then, we had a quiz to guess what the instrument played by the band members outside the room was. The correct answer was the sound of only the mouthpiece of a trumpet, and so on. Groups competed to guess the answer.

Director Sakamoto, who was watching from his seat among the other members at first, also came forward before I knew it. I took the microphone and said, "Director Sakamoto used to appear on variety TV shows, and he's really picky about these kinds of projects." Please forgive my poor camera technique in the next photo.

This shot shows Director Sakamoto after he has made the "Shake it!" pose. The majority of the members of the troupe were born in the 21st century, so it seems that this Fujio Akatsuka world would not have been understood. As they will be performing with Yamashita Yosuke tomorrow, I hope that they will become young people who can do the "Shake it!" and who carry the future on their shoulders. Although it was a short time of just under an hour, everyone was overflowing with smiles that they don't show during practice. Once again, thank you to Hatakeyama Akane and Sato Miyu for leading this recreation. And Director Sakamoto gave a present to all the members of the troupe. He signed the original sheet music covers that we will use tomorrow and handed them to us.

And towards tomorrow.

Let's go to bed early and get some rest today. If you feel sick during tomorrow's performance, feel free to leave." It's finally tomorrow. It's the day of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra's first concert. I revised the script that was pointed out by a clever fifth grader, and went to a convenience store that was a 20-minute drive from the training camp, but was only a one-minute walk from my house, and printed out 20 sets, praying that they were the final versions.

Tomorrow is the debut of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. I hope that the people in front of me who have come out to see us will feel our passion. I hope that we can perform in a way that will shake not only our ears and brains, but also our skin and internal organs.