On December 19th, the Tohoku Youth Orchestra made its debut as a string quartet, commonly known as the TYO Quartet, a first for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. What's more, it was an extraordinary opportunity for a newcomer to perform together with Sayuri Yoshinaga and director Ryuichi Sakamoto.

As for the location,

Yes, if a person stops on an escalator, they move to the right. Yes, this is Western Japan. This is the prestigious Festival Hall in Osaka.

It was newly rebuilt three years ago, and the lower floors of the 37-storey tower are now used as a concert venue.

We immediately went to the dressing room.

The members of the selection were here. From the left, the first violinist, Takuya Ito, is a second-year high school student from Fukushima City, the cellist, Suzunosuke Shimomura, is a fourth-year university student from Sendai, the second violinist, Masahiro Watanabe, is a second-year high school student from Koriyama, and the viola player, Shiori Sasaki, is a fourth-year university student from Sendai. Even though I greeted them with "Welcome!", they were all stiff. Masahiro, wearing a mask, had a slight fever of around 37 degrees (he tested negative for influenza at a hospital in Osaka the day before), so perhaps it was pressure fever. After all, it was a big stage at the Festival Hall, so I couldn't help but encourage them by saying, "Let's all get more nervous." At times like this, we should at least enjoy the tension. In fact, everyone said that they hadn't seen the inside of the hall yet because it wasn't time for rehearsal. This is it.

The hall is said to be five to six times larger than the local hall in Yonezawa City, where cellist Shimomura-kun is currently studying at the Faculty of Engineering at Yamagata University. Today, the auditorium will be filled to capacity with about 2,500 people. By the way, the program is as follows:

The performers were Yoshinaga Sayuri, our very own representative and director Sakamoto Ryuichi, as well as Tsuji Yuki, a flower artist, Muraji Kaori, a classical guitarist, Onuki Taeko, who celebrated the 40th anniversary of her solo debut this year, and Clara Kumagai, who recited English lyrics. The final act of this impressive line-up was the Tohoku Youth Orchestra String Quartet, who performed as an encore! What was even more surprising was the author of "What I Can Do," Yamazaki Yuko, who read the poem of Fukushima, which was read by Yoshinaga Sayuri and accompanied by Sakamoto Ryuichi.

Isn't this Yamazaki-san a member of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra who has been playing the violin since last year? Time has passed since then, and now she is a third-year junior high school student and is active in the orchestra. I feel that she is truly putting into practice what she can do in the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, and I am especially touched by the connection that I have made with Yoshinaga-san.

Before we knew it, the performance was approaching, and as the dressing room door opened, Director Sakamoto appeared, encouraging the TYO Quartet members!

This is a commemorative photo taken just before the start of the performance at 6:30 p.m. As there was still time before the performance, we asked the audience to stand at the back of the hall and watch the performance, where Yoshinaga recited a poem about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima accompanied by Director Sakamoto's piano. The performance began quietly with the words of Toge Sankichi, "Give me back my father, give me back my mother." The poems vividly depict the horror of the atomic bombing and express the author's grief. The careful and, in a sense, dispassionate reading of the poems made the reading even more realistic. Director Sakamoto layered restrained lyric sounds on top of the poems, and Takatani Shiro's hands made the poems take shape as flickering linguistic symbols. It was a powerful experience for the quartet members, who returned to their dressing rooms during the intermission in the first half, exhausted. I, the accompanying reporter, was also struck by the intensity of the expression.

While the high school team of Ito-kun and Masahiro-san are stunned, the two university students, Sasaki-san and Shimomura-kun, are using their smartphones to refresh themselves. I see, smartphones are used for times like this. Then, when the call came for their turn, the four of them changed into their costumes and took a picture in front of the dressing room.

And then just before, backstage.

The concert ended with the recitation of two pieces, "Peace is Wonderful" and "If You Climb That Mountain," while the TYO Four Musketeers performed two songs from the film "Living with My Mother," starring Sayuri Yoshinaga and with a soundtrack composed by Director Sakamoto. They performed beautifully on this special stage!

The members were smiling when they returned to the wings of the stage. The accompanying reporters were so moved that the photos were "quite out of focus."

The next morning, I bought the morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which was sponsoring the concert, and there was an article on the front page.

Furthermore, I looked at the social section and was knocked out on the train at 6am! It woke me up 10 times more than if I had had black coffee!!

While it cannot compete with the physical size of a paper copy, the digital version of the article allows you to listen to Yoshinaga's reading and also see the first autographs of the TYO Quartet.

A poem of life spun with Yoshinaga, performed with music and flowers, towards a nuclear-free world: The Asahi Shimbun Digital
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASJDN01Q8JDMPTIL036.html

And TYO's GO WEST tour didn't end there. The two boys of the quartet got off in Tokyo, where their next performance was waiting for them on the 21st, two days after the show.

The award ceremony for the 25th Montblanc International Cultural Award, which was awarded to Ryuichi Sakamoto, was held at Daiichi Seimei Hall in Harumi, Tokyo, and as guests of honor, the Tohoku Youth Orchestra Trio, commonly known as the TYO Trio, consisting of pianist Director Sakamoto, violinist Takuya Ito, and cellist Suzunosuke Shimomura, performed on an extremely sunny stage. For details on the day, please read this article. There are also photos of them performing "Beautiful Blue Sky" and "Main Theme of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence".

Ryuichi Sakamoto receives the Montblanc International Cultural Award. Ryu Murakami also offers his congratulations | Ryuichi Sakamoto
https://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000136397

This article also includes a news video.

Ryuichi Sakamoto receives Montblanc International Cultural Award, performs at awards ceremony - amass
http://amass.jp/82586/

We heard that the MC would ask the TYO duo for a comment after the performance, so we quickly thought about what we would talk about in the dressing room.

I had practiced it thoroughly. Here's what happened:

After the show, we recorded "This is what I really wanted to say" in the dressing room.

Shimomura, the cellist, is a 25-year-old fourth-year university student. He actually took two years off from university to join the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. He's a real reliable guy. He loves ramen and said he had it for almost every meal during his stay in Tokyo on this tour. I took a photo of the TYO scarf ban in the style of a ramen chef draining the water at a ramen shop.

After the award ceremony, there was a rare stage called a "photo session," which even adults have an experience rate of less than 0.001%. A staff member called out to two of us, our eyes stinging from the flood of camera flashes. "Where are you from? I'm from Fukushima, too."

So the two of us, both from Fukushima City, took a commemorative photo.

The first tour of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra has ended without a hitch. Thank you very much to everyone who made this opportunity possible. Thanks to you, the members who were able to perform were able to have a rare and valuable experience in their lives, and the name and activities of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra have become known to the world. Tomorrow, the 25th, we will have a joint practice session in Fukushima City, so please be on time and participate with enthusiasm. Advance tickets for the second concert in March next year will also go on sale soon.

We appreciate your continued support for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.