This is a report from the concert (Tokyo and Koriyama).

After the three-day training camp, the orchestra leaves the training camp site in Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture at 7:00 a.m. the next morning, arrives at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in Hatsudai, Shinjuku Ward at 9:00 a.m., quickly prepares, and starts rehearsing at 10:00 a.m. This hectic schedule is unique to the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. Samuel Ullman also wrote a poem that goes, "Youth is not a time of life-it is a state of mind; it is a temper of the will," doesn't it?

Since it is a youth concert, it is likely to cause inconvenience to the distinguished guests... However, Director Ryuichi Sakamoto is fully prepared.

Wearing charity T-shirts designed by Shinro Ohtake with "Tohoku" emblazoned on the chest, they were waiting for the rehearsal just before the event.

Of course, the words "Youth Orchestra" were written on the back. The rehearsal went smoothly with the conductor, Toshio Yanagisawa, and the two of them wearing matching outfits. The main concert was scheduled to last two and a half hours, so the scheduled rehearsal time flew by, and the doors opened immediately after lunch and changing clothes.
The first performance was by the "shadow announcers" that were introduced last year. Normally, the presenter would hide in the shadows and announce things like "Please turn off your cell phones" and "Please do not wave flags around." The members of the orchestra would then go out on stage to announce the important things. The aim of this performance was to convey that the orchestra is made up of members of different backgrounds and ages.

The six members of the Shadow Announcer Squad were Akane Hatakeyama (violin), a third-year university student from Sendai, captain Seiya Kitagawa (violin), a fifth-year elementary school student from Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, Minami Suzuki (violin), a sixth-year elementary school student from Sendai, Yuko Yamazaki (violin), a third-year junior high school student from Fukushima City, Aoi Nishino (trombone), a second-year junior high school student from Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, and Karin Hashimoto (double bass), a second-year university student from Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. Following them, university students Yuto Nakamura and Tomoko Saito from Sendai, who played a trumpet trio that was composed by Hidezumi Tsutsumi (percussion), a third-year junior high school student from Fukushima City, and Hiroto Endo, a third-year high school student from Morioka City, were on standby in the wings of the stage.

The person who can be seen on the right side of Mr. Saito is a fifth grade elementary school student from Morioka, a violinist, Seiya Kitagawa. The tops of the four of them lined up are so uniform that you can draw a straight line. Anyway, five minutes before the start of the performance, the members who were going to enter from the left side of the stage gathered in the wings of the dressing room.

Perhaps because they had practiced enough after hearing Director Sakamoto's talk, the members were relaxed this year, even giving peace signs right before the performance. They're reliable!

The director sends the members off onto the stage with a high-five, giving them a pumped-up energy boost.

Following the opening "The Last Emperor's Theme" like a year ago, this year they performed "Yae no Sakura Main Theme". This year too, MC Mari Watanabe smoothly and accurately led the show, and it went smoothly into the joint performance with Sayuri Yoshinaga.

For this section with Yoshinaga, Director Sakamoto himself took the helm to coordinate the timing of the performance and reading of his own composition, "Living with My Mother."
This year, Ms. Sayuri Yoshinaga's comment on stage, "I may be a nuisance, but I would like to participate in this event even if only a little," which I could only bow my head in gratitude for, was featured in various sports newspapers. "I'm not a nuisance at all!" I have attached links to the articles in Nikkan Sports , Sports Hochi , Sankei Sports , and Daily Sports .
Next, we performed the Okinawa folk song "Tinsagunu Hana" with Unaigumi, "Miroku Sekaho" composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and a medley of folk songs from the three prefectures where the members are from, "Tairyo Utagikomi", "Nambu Yoshare", and "Soma Bon Uta", arranged by Dai Fujikura, a contemporary music composer who is currently attracting worldwide attention, "Three TOHOKU Songs". This series of performances is the "Yaponesia (©️ Toshio Shimao) Part", which expresses the ancient layers of Japanese music. This time, after playing this music that connects Okinawa and Tohoku, I felt that I had found one of the several possible answers to the question of how to develop the musicality of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra in the future.

There is a 15-minute break in the hall, but the members are preparing for the next piece. The main piece of this year's concert is Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 "Titan". Although the orchestra responded to a request from the members to try playing it, at the beginning of practice six months ago, doubts were running through their minds, such as "Can we get to a level where we can play this for people?", and even at practice the month before, the conductor, Toshio Yanagisawa, said, "I'm afraid to stop halfway through." Well, it's too challenging to play with a youth orchestra or a junior orchestra. However, "Youth is not a time of life-it is a state of mind; it is a temper of the will," is the point.

Before the second performance, three people were preparing for the "Banda" as instructed in Gustav Mahler's score. I learned for the first time at this concert that "Banda" is a small ensemble that plays as a "separate force" in a separate location, separate from the main original formation. If you want to know more, good men and women, please read this (that's all I can say...).

Before the performance, the two members of the trumpet fanfare trio will join Fujita Salem, a first-year junior high school student from Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, to play "Banda."

Despite the worried-looking Watanabe Mari and others dressed like "Greek goddesses (©️ Ryuichi Sakamoto)," the band played a refreshing trumpet sound.

Mr. Yanagisawa's conducting was filled with a quiet passion, like he was shooting laser beams at the members, saying, "Now is the real thing." I was so nervous that I was afraid they would stop midway, so I couldn't take any photos, so I've included a shot of them playing "Mala 1" taken by TYO's official photographer, Ryuichi Maruo.

The performance of the large-scale and difficult piece, which lasted over 50 minutes, was completed without any problems. The applause from the audience could be heard loudly from the wings of the stage. Several people even shouted "Bravo!" "Bravo!". I was moved to tears when the members of the orchestra stood up in response to the cheers. I'm sorry to use this as an analogy, but here is a "Slightly Out of Focus©️Robert Capa" photo taken from the wings of the stage.

For the encore, they performed "ETUDE," composed by director Ryuichi Sakamoto, a piece that they had continued from their performance at the Children's Music Revitalization Fund, which was established immediately after 3/11. The audience clapped along, bringing the venue to life, and the concert ended with a heartfelt round of applause.

After the show, in addition to Director Sakamoto and Captain Hatakeyama Akane, Fukuzumi Maon (left), Endo Hiroto (right), and Endo Ririka (right), answered questions on behalf of their respective prefectures during the press conference. This was also featured in several articles, including "Sakamoto Ryuichi performs with Tohoku student orchestra, reaffirming his determination to support reconstruction efforts: 'We will never forget'" , "Praise for performance by orchestra led by Sakamoto Ryuichi" , and "This year's Tohoku Youth Orchestra concert a great success again (video available)" .

Unlike last year, this year's performance was two consecutive days. As soon as the performance ended, the members got on the bus and traveled to Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture on the same day. In other words, they had two meals a day with bento. The Tohoku Youth Orchestra is unique in that it allows them to experience the life of a popular entertainer.

At the Koriyama Civic Cultural Center, you will be greeted by the city's mascot, Gakuto-kun. Koriyama City is a local government that aims to liven up the local area with music, calling itself the "Vienna of Tohoku."

We had just finished the performance in Tokyo yesterday, so today's rehearsal progressed at a good pace, focusing on the areas we had corrected from the previous day.

Once the rehearsal of the guest part was over, Captain Hatakeyama said, "Please give us some time!" He said he wanted to present a message of thanks to all the other performers. Everyone seemed to understand the value and gratitude of the gift, which made the accompanying teacher very happy. This is the scene where the gift was presented to Unaigumi. Apparently, when Unaigumi was about to catch a taxi from Koriyama Station that day, the Okinawa Festival was taking place. An episode was introduced about how the Eisa dance, which is an event in which all Okinawans participate, has its roots in the "Jangara Nembutsu Dance" in Fukushima Prefecture.

I was curious to see what the message contained, so I took a photo of it.

After the rehearsal, we all took a commemorative photo together, including the secretariat members and staff from Tokyo and Fukushima.

The Koriyama Civic Cultural Center Large Hall is a large hall, as its name suggests, with an audience capacity of just under 2,000, more than the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall the day before, and at first we were worried whether the audience would be able to fill it up. However, in response to the members' desire to perform in their hometown, Fukushima Minpo, a board member of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, sponsored the Koriyama performance as part of the company's 125th anniversary project, which made it possible.

This was a full-page PR in the Fukushima Minpo newspaper twice before the concert. Thanks to your support, the Koriyama concert was a full house. In addition, a photo panel exhibition introducing this year's activities was held in the lobby, thanks to the kind consideration of our sponsor, JA Kyosai.

There was also a display of messages written by members expressing their enthusiasm.

Now that customers are starting to arrive one after another, it's time for the Koriyama performance's shadow announcer team to take action.

All the members except for Captain Akane Hatakeyama, who has been there for two days in a row since yesterday, are members who live in Koriyama City. From the left, Daishin Fukuda (5th grade, violin), Rina Sakuma (1st year, cello), Riko Ishii (1st year, cello), Yuri Tanno (2nd year, double bass), and Reika Ashina (2nd year, cello). This is a glorious stage for them to make a triumphant return to their hometown.
This is followed by a trumpet trio fanfare.

On the second day, the troupe gathered backstage, looking even more relaxed.

Well, today's performance begins with Director Sakamoto sending off the members.

The first part of the collaboration with Yoshinaga Sayuri and Unaigumi went smoothly, and after a break they performed the main piece, Mahler's Symphony No. 1.

So, will they be able to play continuously in front of the familiar local crowd, and will they be able to give a performance worthy of the culmination of this season's activities? Yanagisawa-san instinctively touches his bow tie, full of energy before his performance.

The first movement began smoothly, and as I waited in the wings, I wished the performance would just stop. It was similar to the feeling you get in a high school baseball game with the bases loaded and hoping that a walk won't result in a forced out.
Director Sakamoto, who is not on stage, does not take a break in the dressing room, but instead watches over the performance, keeping the rhythm in the wings.

The performance was even better than yesterday. The growth of young people is amazing. I remember that I was growing taller every day when I was in junior high school. Then, as the fourth movement reached its end, the performance finished beautifully.

Sayuri Yoshinaga and Mari Watanabe also applauded from the wings. The final song of this year's Tohoku Youth Orchestra concert was "ETUDE", performed together with director Ryuichi Sakamoto.

We all agreed that it had been a while since we last saw each other, so we went to Koriyama Civic Center for some soft drinks, chatted and mingled for a while, and then finished off by taking a commemorative photo together.

This friendly atmosphere among both children and adults is unique to the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.
The stage where the performance had been taking place just moments ago has now been cleared away, leaving the place empty.

As I was feeling deeply grateful that we were able to finish the concert safely, I was told that someone had left their wallet in the dressing room. When I looked inside, I found a driver's license in the name of Yuta Tomizawa, and the culprit was immediately identified. Forgetting things is a specialty of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra.

Tomizawa-kun respectfully accepts the gift while apologizing profusely to Naomi Okada, the office lady. He has helped out a lot this year. I'll be more careful not to forget anything next year.

This is a continuation of Samuel Ullman's poem "YOUTH," quoted at the beginning.

Youth is not a time of life-it is a state of mind; it is a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over love ease.

The poem begins, "Youth is not a period of life. Youth is a state of mind." It goes on to say, "Youth is a disposition of the will, a quality of the imagination, a force of emotion, a bold courage that overcomes timidity, a taste for adventure that is not easily taken."

Having now completed its second period of activities, it is my hope that the Tohoku Youth Orchestra can continue on with this same spirit.

We would like to thank everyone involved. We plan to begin recruiting new members for the third term of our activities this month. We appreciate your continued support.