[Pre-event training camp in Morioka] It's the second day.

With just two days to go until the event, yesterday's interview was featured on the front page of the Iwate Nippo morning edition.

On the front page, which could be mistaken for a sports newspaper, there was a subheading "Tohoku Youth Orchestra to perform on the 23rd", and on the third page, there was a color photo with the headline "Send your sound to Ryuichi Sakamoto". Comments from this season's captain, trombone player Kaizu Kota (2nd year university student), and violinist Kanasugi Kanon (2nd year junior high school student) from Iwate Prefecture were introduced. There is no link because it has not been released on the web yet.

An article about Captain Kaizu was also published in the Fukushima Minpo today. "Thank you for teaching me, turn it into music. Kota Kaizu (Fukushima University) of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, for the memorial concert for the late Ryuichi Sakamoto." You can read the article from the link below.

Captain Kaizu, who is in high demand, was also featured on the Nippon Television news site last night. Click here to watch the video. You can also read the article "The captain of the orchestra directed by Ryuichi Sakamoto talks about his memories with Sakamoto: "A treasure for life."

After morning practice, it's lunchtime.

Some of our members are "strong-willed wear fans" and come to show off their favorite cub character outfits, but above all, it's all about getting some nutrition!

NHK's camera also follows the meal scenes.

Today's lunch is curry, a typical training camp meal.

However, it seems that some members had curry for breakfast at their accommodation.

I'm glad that curry made me smile for two meals in a row.

They also used their lunch break to hold a planning meeting for the Shibuya radio regular program "Shibuya's Tohoku Youth Orchestra" (every Wednesday from 11:30 to 11:55) from April onwards. You can listen to all the archives of this program from the link below.

Well, starting today, practice will be conducted by Maestro Yanagisawa Toshio.

The first practice session of the afternoon started with the first song of the performance.

Anyone who can guess the song in this lineup must be a big Ryuichi Sakamoto fan. Please look forward to the opening song!

In the afternoon, we had an ensemble practice with some encouraging guest musicians joining us.

This is pianist Shota Nakano .

In preparation for this performance, he apparently listened carefully to director Ryuichi Sakamoto's piano touch.

Please look forward to the actual performance.

Finally, the Yomiuri Shimbun also featured us in an article today.
"A young orchestra from Tohoku will hold a memorial concert with the message of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "spiritual recovery" in mind... "We want to make people smile." The report quotes the comments of conductor Yanagisawa, Mizuho Miura, and Shinkyo Komai.

The countdown board to the actual event, a regular feature of the training camp, is becoming lively.

This was a portrait competition (although there were only two entries) for Sato Kousei, the cellist from the 9th term who has been given the nickname "Chopin," so we took a commemorative photo with him.

Also, there was a piece of conducting art by Komai Shinkyo (violinist), a second-year junior high school student from Morioka City, whose comments were featured in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, on the board. So I went to see Yanagisawa after practice today and asked him, "What do you think?" and "Does it look like it?"

"That's too young!" was the answer. I hope that Komai's own Oshikatsu art will achieve creative development.

Tickets are still available for this weekend's concerts in Morioka on the 23rd (Sat), in Sendai on the 24th (Sun) (both with guest Non-san), and in Koriyama on the 30th (Sat) (with guest Yoshinaga Sayuri). It takes just over two hours to get from Tokyo to Morioka by Hayabusa. The only official memorial performance for director Sakamoto Ryuichi! The footage also includes plenty of unreleased material, such as photos from his private archives and footage of his days with members of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

I had a chance to catch a glimpse of the footage today. You could even think of this memorial concert as a two-and-a-half hour cinema concert that traces the life of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Numerous precious stills and movies were projected onto a large screen along with the performance, making this a must-see concert for fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Let's send some music together to Director Ryuichi Sakamoto in heaven.
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