Thursday, March 21, 2013

Upcoming Children's Tour

Tomorrow we set sail for a 3 day voyage of the Hyogo Prefecture, bringing music to children and their families.  The heart of the program is the fourth movement of Scheherazade, flanked by quite a bit of violin solo music (Cszardas, Zigeunerweisen, Vivaldi concerto for 4 violins) as well as My Grandfather's Clock (a favorite here) and the indefatigable Radeztky March.   There may be audience participation involved and I have a feeling that the heavy emphasis on violin is a sympathetic nod to the prevalence of this instrument in the early years of music training.  We've been told that children as young as three will be there (though I doubt the bouncers will turn away the babies which inevitably accompany those three-year-olds' mothers).  I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but I'm looking forward to it.

Our conductor, the same man who lead us for the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly Concert and the Wakuwaku concerts, prepared us for the journey in a similar way as these other concerts.  "I learned that children's voices are from heaven," he said, the goal being to embrace crying children.  He has a great attitude about a lot of things.

In addition to this, the tour also means two nights in a hotel and that means two nights with Japanese television and two mornings of Japanese breakfast.  Children, Japanese TV, and Japanese food.  This is pretty exciting.  The only thing that competes with this excitement is my first batch of homemade azuki paste waiting for me on the stove.  Yum.

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