I was finally able to start practicing again.

Today, we were able to resume the 7th joint practice session in Fukushima City. It's been a year since we last met at Fukushima Minpo Hall. Some of the old members have changed their hair color, grown a lot taller, and are wearing masks, so I don't know who they are, and some of the new members I only met once at the kickoff in July, so it's a fresh feeling to know who they are unless you look at their name tags.
Conductor Toshio Yanagisawa also spoke about the Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, which will be performed in March of next year, and the significance of the choir that will be participating from areas affected by natural disasters across the country. We hope that the coronavirus pandemic will be contained and that the regular concert, which has been held for two years, will be realized.

In the morning, we had a welcome visitor. It was Haruka Watanabe (double bass player), who graduated from the group this spring and is now working as a nurse in her hometown.

We brought chocolates to Naomi Okada of the Tokyo office. Despite working in the medical field, which is busy dealing with the coronavirus, she came to check on the current members on her precious day off. Listening to her stories of her daily life taking blood and handling radiation, I was deeply moved and thought, "They have grown up so well." As for the state of practice, she also gave us the OK from a nurse's perspective to prevent infection. This is reassuring. We can rely on them. You can see an interview with the trio of nurses who also graduated this spring in JA Kyosai's special content.

This is conductor Toshio Yanagisawa, who has a sweet tooth, delighted with the gift brought by Haruka Watanabe.
After a lunch with consideration given to preventing infection, we had an ensemble practice of "Ima Jikan ga Kagate," a new song for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra by director Ryuichi Sakamoto. The percussion section was having difficulty with the odd 11-beat time signature, and Sakamoto gave the advice, "Practice as if you were a master of taiko drums."

Sekine Sui, the oboe player on his day off, greeted the alumni who came to watch in the afternoon in the same pose as Yanagisawa.

Ryoya Kano (horn player), who graduated from the orchestra last spring, came all the way from Sendai (empty-handed).

While maintaining social distance, they were having a conversation where it was unclear who was the senior. This was a scene of flat connections that is typical of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. (Afterwards, Kano-kun came back with a box of high-quality sweets for everyone. I was impressed by his professional play, but all the alumni don't have to worry about bringing gifts, just drop by our joint practice anytime.)
And this day was a practice for the requested performance at the Keio Mita-kai Convention scheduled to be held on the 17th of this month . On the day, we were able to ask Hirofumi Kurita to conduct in place of Mr. Yanagisawa, who was unable to attend.

Since we needed to complete the performance of the requested piece in a short period of time, we received pinpoint, detailed, and specific guidance from each section and performer. Thank you very much.

I understand that the event has already been announced to Keio University alumni. If you are one of those good men and women, please purchase your tickets and enjoy the remote live broadcast.
I hope that the epidemic will be eradicated and that we will be able to perform "Ode to Joy" in Morioka, Sendai, Fukushima, and Tokyo in March 2022. I also hope that we will be able to perform the world premiere of Director Sakamoto's original music!