Report from the first day of the final training camp.

Ahead of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra Concert 2017 in Tokyo and Koriyama this weekend, we have started a three-day training camp today. The location is the coast of the Boso Peninsula, two hours by highway bus from Tokyo Station.

We happened to be a group of three university students on board. With two consecutive days of performances, our luggage was enough to last five days.
The students who had arrived at the hotel earlier had already started to bring in their instruments. What was in this box?

The correct answer was a harp. As the large instrument was being carried in, TYO's representative and director Ryuichi Sakamoto arrived.

We snapped a photo of him stepping out of a luxury car with aplomb. Director Sakamoto, who came to Japan from New York last week, came to the training camp to test a new music experience called "LEXUS Listening Drive | Ryuichi Sakamoto" as part of the project for his new studio-recorded album, his first in eight years, which will be released on the 29th next week. For more information on the collaboration with LEXUS, please click here .
Three buses carrying the members have now arrived.

The Iwate group gathered at Morioka Station at 6:15 in the morning. It took about 7 hours of bus travel from Fukushima to Chiba Prefecture. The earliest risers were Iwahana-kun from Miyako and Miura-san from Kesennuma, who woke up at 3:30 in the morning. 12 and a half hours had already passed. Thank you for your hard work!

As the members headed to the practice venue one after another,

Director Sakamoto welcomed everyone by waving goodbye.

This "Margaret" will be the practice venue for the three days.

This hotel's banquet hall is filled with the Showa era atmosphere.

In about 30 minutes, the hall was transformed into an orchestra practice hall. There are a total of 104 members of TYO, but on the first day, just over 80 people participated. As expected, this spring period coincides with school events such as graduation ceremonies.

As scheduled, the practice began at 4pm, under the guidance of conductor Toshio Yanagisawa and Director Sakamoto, with the director also playing piano, to practice nine songs together. The practice was done in a closed room with no windows, but when the door was opened during the break,

A beautiful evening view unfolded before us. During the 10-minute break, the sunset and photography boom suddenly began.

As dusk fell, the first guest arrived. Yuji Arakawa, who will be writing the music commentary for the pamphlet to be distributed to attendees at the concert, just like last year, brought 110 cream puffs this year as well. Thank you very much.

Mr. Arakawa is the CEO and COO of copyright management company Nextone , and we took the opportunity to hear him say a few words before dinner at 6:30 p.m.

"I've known Director Sakamoto for so long that I don't know how long it's been," she said. I couldn't help but laugh, and my footage is blurry, so I'm sorry. "I also attended the concert last year. There are many orchestras out there that are better than you guys, but I was really moved by hearing your passionate performance with all your might. I'm looking forward to this year's performance too," she said, giving me very warm words of encouragement.

We all had dinner. Those who woke up at 3:30am were probably in the mood for a midnight snack. By the way, JA Kyosai sent us 30kg of Tsuyahime rice from Miyagi Prefecture, which was cooked at the hotel. It was like a gift from a sumo wrestling tournament, and everyone enjoyed it, even having seconds. Thank you very much. Speaking of gifts, the conductor, Mr. Yanagisawa, also sent a thoughtful gift.

And the cream puffs came in two flavors.

It seems that the members of the group now know Mr. Arakawa as "President Choux."

After eating some sweets, the first night's practice began with the main piece, Mahler's Symphony No. 1. Nicknamed "Malaichi" among TYO members and "Titan" by the general public, this was truly a battle with a giant. This was a challenge to perform a large, difficult piece that would never be performed in full by a junior orchestra. Yanagisawa commented, "I'm afraid we'll stop during the performance," and after listening to today's practice, Director Sakamoto said, "We'd better practice Mahler thoroughly during this training camp."

Although the full practice ended at 9 p.m., when we told the students they could make noise until 10 p.m., the number of people who stayed behind was astonishing.

There were also groups practicing for the lobby concert on the day of the performance. That's right, on the 25th and 26th, two groups will be performing in the lobby shortly after the doors open. In both Tokyo and Koriyama, we look forward to your arrival early, not right before the show starts.

First of all, we were able to successfully complete the first day of the training camp. We will be posting daily reports until the day of the event, so we would like to thank the members' families, related parties, and supporters for their continued support.