Joint practice session in November in Fukushima City.

On Sunday, November 7th, the beginning of winter, we were able to hold a joint practice session at the Fukushima Minpo Hall in Fukushima City.

Surrounded by trees changing color in autumn, members gathered from all over the place and took thorough infection control measures such as taking their temperatures, disinfecting their hands, and making sure that everyone except those playing wind instruments wore masks.It was a blessing to be able to practice together.

Before the 10:00 a.m. practice, Masato Oshigi, representative director of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra General Incorporated Association, gave words of encouragement to this year's members, whom he met for the first time.

Oshiki, who is also the CEO of Yamaha Music Japan Co., Ltd. , often works on weekends, such as attending events, but he managed to find time in his schedule to be there until the practice ended at 4:30 p.m. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a supply-demand gap for pianos and other musical instruments and audio equipment, and they are unable to deliver to customers as they wish, forcing them to raise prices on some products. "We're always apologizing," he told us of his struggles.

First, we started practicing with the fourth movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, under the direction of Toshio Yanagisawa. By the way, Mr. Yanagisawa sang the chorus part of the "chorus included" performance. He is a real dual-sword player, both as a conductor and a chorus member.

Some people just show up unannounced.

Wearing a mask and carrying a cardboard box, he looked like a thief sneaking out of the store, but it was alumnus Yuta Tomizawa (tuba player). Since April, he has been teaching at a local technical high school in Iwaki City as a part-time world history and geography instructor, but after a health check revealed he had a suspected adult disease, he is now on a diet to lose 10kg.

He didn't forget to bring some snacks for the members, and came to visit with two boxes of canned juice. Moreover, in this 7th term, two students from Nakohira Technical High School, where he works, joined the group through an introduction by Mr. Tomizawa. He has the presence of a teacher, and it's very reliable.

It was my first reunion in many years with the secretariat members and percussionist Asano, who was on a day off.

During the lunch break, the members of the 7th term gathered together for some preliminary interviews for the production of an advertisement for JA Kyosai in March of next year.

The purpose of the project was explained by I&S, the production team. The special website for JA Kyosai , which has been our long-time sponsor, features our members as celebrities. Please click the link above to take a look.

On this day, original goods produced by JA Kyosai Fukushima Ren were distributed to the members, including clear files and clips for holding sheet music in place.

Gifts from alumni were also placed side by side.

To the right of the apple juice and orange juice from Yuta Tomizawa, the president of the alumni association, Mikuko Hattori, who played the viola section from the first to third terms, sent a chocolate from the famous confectionery company Royce from Sapporo, Hokkaido, with the message, "Do your best in today's practice, making safety and health your number one priority!" Thank you both for your thoughtfulness.

Tomizawa, the eldest of the three Tomizawa brothers at TYO, agreed to be interviewed about the advertising production during the afternoon practice session.

Below are photos of the afternoon rehearsal, which began with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

After a break, the percussion section participating today is on standby for an ensemble practice of "Ima Jikan Kagaite," an original song by director Ryuichi Sakamoto for TYO.

The percussionists had a hard time with the 11-beat rhythm in the last ensemble practice, but Yanagisawa-san gave them homework saying, "Practice as if you were a master of taiko drums," and today they performed perfectly. Everyone praised them, saying, "I can see that you've practiced a lot. Let's applaud!"

The series of reunions continues.

They are alumni Yuta Tomizawa (tuba) and Yuto Nakamura (trumpet), who are in their final year and are classmates in the first term. The subtle social distance between these two is not due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has existed since before. I have also devoted a chapter to the feud between Yuta and Yuto in my book, "Sound, the Sound of Hope: The Future Connected by the Tohoku Youth Orchestra" (Froebel-kan) . All author royalties will be used to cover activity costs, so I would be happy if you would take this opportunity to purchase the book.

Both of their parents are teachers, and they want to be teachers themselves, but Yuta Tomizawa will not be able to pass the teacher recruitment exam next year, while Yuto Nakamura has decided to start working as a teacher at a private elementary school in Tokyo from April next year. We look forward to hearing good news from the eldest son of Tomizawa!

Today's joint practice session was also about practicing "Theree TOHOKU songs."

This was the second game of the professional baseball Climax Series, and as a Yomiuri Giants fan, Yanagisawa was anxious to see what was going on and was worried about whether he would be able to join in with his cheers during the actual game.

This is a photo of us packing up after practice.

Before you know it, Watanabe Sota, a sixth-grader and fellow viola player, has surpassed the height of Suzuki Shoko, the top viola player and graduating this year.

The three-way meeting, which was also attended by Souta's father and Mr. Watanabe Yutaka from the Fukushima office, who is also the manager of the local musical instrument store Brilliant , was heartwarming, and it felt like a return to the usual scene after practice for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

This was also a scene of a reunion after many years. We found the three Tomizawa brothers from TYO and took a commemorative photo.

The three brothers kept checking with each other, asking questions like, "Is it been a year?" or "Is it been two years?"

It's nice to meet people here and there after so many years.
I can only pray that the new coronavirus does not get stronger.

Thanks to you, we were able to complete the joint practice session in November without any problems.
Captain Tajima Shiori will be leading a group of elementary and junior high school students returning to Morioka to Fukushima Station.

The captain, a graduate student handing out Shinkansen tickets, is wearing a mask and looks like a junior high school student (far left). This level relationship between the elementary school students and graduate students is an important value of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign on CAMPFIRE to ask for support for our activities this year . We will be offering a variety of original Tohoku Youth Orchestra goods as a thank you gift, so we appreciate your support. The comments we have received so far have also been very encouraging. Thank you very much.

I sincerely hope that we will be able to hold another joint practice session next month without any problems.