This is a report from the joint training session in February.

The final practice session of the season was held at Fukushima Minpo Hall for two days on February 15th and 16th.

The first day in Fukushima was a clear day. The temperature was just right for a light coat.

On this day, Mr. Sasaki, Section Chief of the JA Zenkyoren National Headquarters, came to observe the practice.

Thank you for your greetings.

We also received some Kesen Tsubaki tea from Ofunato as a gift from the JA Zenkyoren National Headquarters.

Kesen Tsubaki tea is a fermented tea made by blending camellia leaves grown in the Kesen region with green tea.

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The first morning was spent practicing the Ninth Symphony. Professor Yanagisawa performed the entire piece.

There was coverage on this day as well, and multiple cameras were present.

Filming will also be taken of people chatting together during breaks.

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On the first day, we received lunch boxes and tea ( https://earlgrey-2007.com/ ) from JA Kyosairen Fukushima. Thank you as always.

It was delicious.

Well, we received a lot of gifts at this practice session.

These are sweets provided by Digital Garage. The cute packaging got the members excited.

The mother of flute player Keika Ishikawa kindly donated masks and disinfectant to the school. These are welcome preventive items, especially in the midst of the spread of pneumonia and influenza, which are hard to come by.

Trombone player Yukiho Hashimoto's family provided us with large, very sweet Kesennuma strawberries.

When you gather this many strawberries together it's quite a sight...

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During the lunch break, we also conducted interviews and took photos for a magazine advertisement.

This is an interview with sisters Mizuho Momiyama (older sister), who plays the clarinet section, and Suzu (younger sister), who is participating in the Ninth Symphony chorus.

The sisters are very close and apparently talk to each other frequently on the phone or through LINE.

Even the timing of when they take their lunch to their mouths is perfect, showing how close they are.

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In the afternoon, we practiced Director Sakamoto's new song, "Now Time is Tilt."

They began practicing this song last month, but many members are struggling with the odd time signature...

University student Hibino Ai gives passionate instruction to the junior and senior high school violin members.

The tasty advice is to get 11 beats (4, 4, 3) with "sukiyaki, sukiyaki, rice."

It seems that this is actually now possible!

The woodwind section also struggled with the odd time signature... but they handled it carefully in the ensemble.

During the break, percussionist Takumi Tomizawa practices, while double bassist Hirohiro Yamazaki claps along along the way.

Taguchi, who plays the violin, also joined in the practice.

It's more like we're playing around... (laughs)

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At the end of the first day, we practiced "Three TOHOKU Songs" for the first time in a while.

This is Tohoku Youth's specialty song, and it will be performed at this concert.

The members' shouts of "Choi saa!" were very energetic.

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By the way, we would like to inform you that we have purchased a dolly as new equipment for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

Takeda and Okada from the TYO secretariat opened the packages with glee!
Orchestras have to carry a lot of instruments, music stands, sheet music, stationery, and other office supplies, so this will make transportation easier...

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On the first day, practice ends at 4:30 pm. We then travel to the accommodation by bus.

On this day, we stayed at a resort facility run by the JA Kyosai Group. We use this facility every February for our joint training. Thank you very much.

We had dinner shortly after arriving.

The person in charge of saying "Itadakimasu" was 5th grade horn player Mikami Reo.

After dinner and a bath, we had a social drinking party with members over the age of 20 and secretariat staff.

They talked about worries about job hunting, part-time jobs, Valentine's Day recently, etc. They were having a great time talking about typical young people's topics.

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Day 2. It was raining, a stark contrast to the previous day.

The Fukushima Minpo newspaper published an article about the previous day's practice on Sunday, February 16th.

In the morning, we performed the entire Ninth Symphony. Some wind instrument members did not join in the Ninth Symphony, so they practiced individually during that time.

The third-year junior high school students used their free time to study.

In preparation for the prefectural high school entrance exams in Miyagi and Fukushima two weeks from now, I will find some free time to study hard.

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During breaks, members also practice independently for lobby concerts and volunteer performances.

Here are four violin quartets practicing the famous Vivaldi piece "Spring."

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In the afternoon, we had a section practice under the guidance of teachers from the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

The string instrument teacher is violinist Yuko Yamauchi.

The woodwind teacher is oboist Fumiyoshi Arakawa.

The brass teacher is horn player Kenji Yamauchi.

The percussion teacher is Yuko Funasako.

He watched us practice, carefully highlighting the areas of concern in each section.

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The final practice session of the season, held in Fukushima, was successfully completed.

As with other practice sessions, there was a lot of people coming and going due to people observing the practice and reporting on the performance. As a chaperone, I was reminded once again that the Tohoku Youth Orchestra is truly an organization that is supported by many people, including people from sponsoring companies, media representatives, teachers from the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the members' families.