Tohoku Youth Orchestra Concert 2023 Iwate Performance!

We will introduce you to the performance in Iwate on Tuesday, March 21st (National Holiday).

In the morning, there was a rehearsal at the actual venue, Morioka Civic Cultural Hall.

Our guest Non and announcer Watanabe Mari, who will be the host for all four performances, also joined us from the morning rehearsal.

We check the acoustics of the hall where the performance will take place.

And as is customary every year, the members practiced their pre-performance announcements.

The announcement team consists of captain and violinist Ayaka Kikuchi, horn player Nazuna Itagaki, violinist Yota Taguchi, violinist Sakura Yoshida, and flute player Rina Iwabuchi.

We also had a pre-concert rehearsal.

↓Team "Cello." ♪ Haydn: Divertimento

↓ Team "Onka's Fun Friends" ♪ Jonetsu Tairiku

Once the rehearsal is over, we go for a break.

It's dry on stage, so moisturizing is essential to protect instruments...

Trombone player Kaizu sprays mist on the stage.

And here is Kaizu's whiteboard work for today.

From the left, Watanabe from the Fukushima Secretariat, conductor Yanagisawa, and Tomo-kun, who composed the fanfare for the percussion section.

They look similar...!

We also captured some photos of the two of them.

And today, we received another wonderful gift. Thank you very much!

Dorayaki from "Tohoku Youth Orchestra" by Watanabe Mari.

We received a chocolate gift from Ai Hibino, a former member of the club.
(His younger brother, Makoto Hibino, would accomplish a great feat that night. More details to come.)

We enjoyed the delicious treats and had lunch.

We change into our costumes. Each member is free to wear their own scarf in any way they like.

↑Looks like a fracture.

↑ Headscarf.

Apparently the photo on the smartphone he is holding was inspired by the way a certain trumpet player plays the trumpet.

Doors open at 13:15. "Real Crowdfunding" will also be held in the lobby.

As a thank you gift, we will be offering TYO merchandise and a book that chronicles TYO's history, "Resound, the Sound of Hope."

The pre-concert during the opening. When I asked the cello member how he felt, he said he was able to perform without feeling particularly nervous!

Fanfare team.

They performed "TYO Fanfare 2023," which incorporates motifs from Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

The members of the group were also waiting in the wings!

The real thing is finally here. Have fun!

The event was covered by NHK news.

*You can view it here .

The members after the performance.

When I asked the members of the orchestra for their impressions, they said that, frankly, there were some parts of the Mahler that made them feel a bit uneasy.

However, from the point of view of the person in charge of supervising them, I felt that they had improved significantly between the first day of the training camp and the actual event. This is also typical of Tohoku Youth.

I think the tension and concentration of the performance, and above all the stimulation of having the teachers from the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra playing next to us, all contributed to the change in our performance.

Thank you to all the members for your hard work! Let's do our best in the upcoming performances in Koriyama, Natori, and Tokyo!

The members also presented Non, who performed with them, with a message album.

A commemorative photo with Non-san!

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After the performance, they also responded to an interview request from the Iwate Nippo Newspaper.

This is Rina Iwabuchi, a flute player from Iwate.

An article about this appeared in the morning paper on Wednesday the 22nd.

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On their last night in Iwate, after packing up the hall, the band members head off by bus to a certain location.

On the second generation bus, the two bus guides, horn player Kanayoshi Kikuno and trombone player Kota Kaizu, will be telling short stories on the microphone during the trip.

Kikuno: "Kaizu-kun is always drawing portraits on the whiteboard, but I wonder who he'll draw next?"

Kaizu: "I would like to write about Okada-san and Iijima-san from the secretariat."

moreover,

Kikuno: "Conductor Yanagisawa tried eating wankosoba after eating a Big Mac, and managed to eat 60 bowls. Research shows that the average number of bowls of wankosoba eaten by an adult male is 60. To achieve the average level after eating a Big Mac, I wonder how today's record will turn out."

As we were talking, we arrived at Azumaya, a restaurant famous for its Wankosoba noodles.

Akihiko Baba, the owner of Azmaya, told us about the history of Wankosoba.

The current record for most wankosoba bowls ever recorded is 500 for a man and 570 for a woman.

While we were doing this, a large amount of soba noodles were brought out.

The Tohoku Youth Orchestra Wankosoba Tournament 2023 is underway!

"Yes, go ahead." "Yes, go ahead."

The waitresses' shouts are wonderful.

The men gathered at the table and ate as much as you'd expect.

Horn player Itagaki Nazuna, who left early, was currently building a tower using a stick used to count the number of soba bowls.

This is 100 cups reached!

You will have the number of cups you drank written on a commemorative handprint and certificate.

When I asked people who had drunk over 100 cups to show their hands, there were quite a lot of them!

The highest record among the members was held by cellist Hibino Makoto, who scored 151 cups.

Everyone gave a round of applause.

Although the tour consisted mostly of rehearsals and performances, on this day they were able to have an experience that was uniquely Morioka, and it is likely to have become a fond memory for the members.

Tomorrow we will be moving from Iwate to Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture!