3rd term 1st joint practice session @Fukushima City

On Saturday, September 23rd, as autumn approached, the first joint practice session of the third term was held in Fukushima City. Starting this year, we rented out the hall of the Fukushima Minpo newspaper, which is a board member of the general incorporated association, for the special use. This will free us from the wandering practice sessions that we have had to frantically search for new venues and change venues from time to time. The location, just a five-minute walk from Fukushima Station, is also a welcome change for members who carry large instruments. is.

The third floor of this impressive building is where we hold our monthly practice sessions. There was also a pleasant change this year. We were able to purchase a full set of percussion instruments. Until now, we had been relying on the kind donations of equipment from local schools. We managed to hold practice sessions by borrowing equipment from rental companies. Similarly, we were struggling to manage our finances, but last year we had some financial leeway, so we decided to use the money we received from everyone. I felt bad about the taxation of donations and sponsorship money, and the rental fees were not insignificant, so I decided to just go ahead and buy it, feeling like a cuckoo jumping off the stage at Kiyomizu Temple.

This is a cover for a timpani owned by the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. Yutaka Watanabe, the president of the musical instrument store Brilliant in Fukushima, found a used gem for us. The other percussion instruments were provided by Masato Oshiki, the representative director of the general incorporated association ( Thanks to the help of Yamaha Corporation Executive Officer and General Manager of the AP Sales Division of the Musical Instruments and Audio Sales Department, we were able to get a new product at a special price. We took a commemorative photo with the shiny new instruments.

Thanks to the understanding and cooperation of everyone involved, the foundation for our activities is gradually becoming more solid. All that's left is practice! At the start of this year's joint practice, we said, "We've received a lot of support from various people, "Let's give back through music. It's not about making people cry. It's all about the quality of the music. Let's play not just for ourselves, but for others," he emphasized. The joint practice session with a total of 112 members has begun. However, about 20 members were absent that day. Regardless of circumstances, I would like all members to understand that they have an obligation to participate in all joint practices. Although there were about 90 people, it was not possible to capture everyone on my smartphone, so I went backstage in the hall and took photos of the practice from two points on the left and right.

The instruction for the day was given by Manabu Takeda of the Fukushima office, in place of Toshio Yanagisawa, who was unable to attend due to his duties in the Balkans. He has been a teacher at the FTV Junior Orchestra for many years.

At the beginning, Takeda-san started explaining the 6/8 time signature of Stravinsky's "The Firebird" on a whiteboard. It was obvious that he was used to teaching children. In addition, the sudden appearance of the lion dance in the center of the stage curtain is very impressive. As the members practice every month, they probably feel as if they are being conducted by the lion dance.

The pieces we will be performing this time, "The Firebird" and Debussy's "La Mer," are both equally difficult pieces, and are even more "giant" than Mahler's "Symphony No. 1 Giant" performed in the previous concert. "Even if I read the score, I don't know how to play it," he said. On Sunday a week ago, a special lecture was given by members of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Sendai and Fukushima. First of all, we spent two hours in the morning carefully carrying out the Phoenix.

As always, lunch break is an opportunity to interact with students regardless of their part-time job, grade, hometown, or where they live. Lunchtime groups were formed here and there.

Due to physical space constraints, lunch lines also form.

Thank you for looking at the camera while stuffing your cheeks.

It is great to see that the 40 or so new members from the third term have integrated into the group through meals. Time spent eating together is important.

And the secretariat received a welcome gift.

Trombone player Yukiho Hashimoto, a first-year high school student, is from a family that runs an orchard in his hometown of Iizaka, Fukushima City, so we were given some freshly harvested grapes.

I heard that your father is a full-time farmer and serves as the "peach specialist division chief" of the Fukushima district headquarters of JA Fukushima Mirai, but you also grow grapes at Hashimoto Orchard . When I took some home instead, my 2-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter fought over it as if it were their main dish and gobbled it up with gooey goat cheese, which they were very grateful for and enjoyed.

In the afternoon, we worked on Debussy's La Mer. It's a piece where mistakes in the percussion and horns are noticeable.

Anyway, I want them to practice and master the two main songs. In the afternoon, we finished the first joint practice session with more than three hours of practice.

They look so happy to see them carrying their own instruments. Fukushima Minpo Newspaper Company has even provided us with a storage space for the percussion instruments. Thank you very much.

We would like to consider strengthening practice for each section of strings and winds by the next practice next month. To repeat, "Let's give back the feelings we have received with music. The quality of the music is everything." This year, we will also focus on activities that are unique to the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. Through the members' initiative, we have begun to create systems and organizations that will enable us to operate independently, and we will also work on public relations and crowdsourcing. Plans for funding and volunteer concerts are beginning to be finalized.

Please keep an eye on the activities of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra this year. We appreciate your continued support.