Individual Examples

17th Special Concert: Tanabata Star Festival Concert

July 7th was the day for the Tanabata Concert, the 17th session of the Concert Series for Children, held at the Kobe College Auditorium. Part 1 started at 11:00, Part 2 at 15:00, with 965 participants in total. With a focus on enjoying various kinds of sounds, eight senior students and one guest artist played solos or ensembles on flutes, violins, pianos, and vocal music together with children in the audience (Y.I., I.K., M.N., M.S., K.Y., R.K./piano, E.A./violin, A.K./flute, T.O./voice).

The concert started with Tanabata-sama by Kan’ichi Shimofusa/Etsuko Takeshika, performed a cappella by all the performers, which soon quieted the audience. Tanabata is a Japanese folktale of a boy named Hikoboshi who fell in love with a girl named Orihime, and their love story was expressed in Divertimento by M.A. Mozart, then Moonlight (voice) by Sayaka Ishiguro/Michio Mado, and E.Elgar’s Salut D’amour (violin), accented by a huge moon prop on the stage. At the scene where the couple’s laziness enraged the god, his fury was powerfully expressed by C. Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre (piano duet). The last number was You Raise Me Up (ensemble) by R. Lovland/B. Graham. The concert thus had quite a diverse program planned by the students of the Kobe College Outreach Program.

The concert also included several pieces for ensemble with children: G. Kingsley’s Baroque Hoedown inspired their dancing and clapping. The children were given lightstick bracelets which shone brilliantly in the darkened hall, creating a gorgeous atmosphere. L. Mozart’s Toy Symphony showed children that ordinary items such as coin purses or even their own feet were able to make musical rhythms. Some children were invited onto the stage to join the ensemble. Everyone had a grand time creating and enjoying their own music.

After the concert the children got hands-on experience with the musical instruments used in the concert: flutes, violins, pianos, celestas, and tone chimes. Some were astonished when their instruments made sounds, while others tried to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star which they sang during the concert. Their happy faces were so moving that we once again recognized the importance of the music. The audience also gave us a lot of feedback: “We really had a wonderful time as performers’ cordialness came through to us;” “The selection of music was so good for the Star Festival in order to spark our imagination;” “A very good occasion to teach children how to enjoy music at a concert.” Some people suggested ideas for expanding the program, or increasing the number of pieces with which children were more familiar. Anyway, children were so frank and open to express their feelings at the concert and we learned a lot from their reactions. Their encouraging words and smiles made us very happy.

Before the concert, everybody was too busy to do enough rehearsals, making us very nervous. However, once the concert started, all of us had a very good time in spite of a tense atmosphere, and were able to complete the two performances well. We discussed the aim of this concert many times beforehand, and worked very hard together with other staff members. I am sure that all these experiences will serve as a great source of encouragement for our future activities. (Written by Y. I.)

18th: Special Concert

On the very fine day of Saturday, October 20, the Special Concert for Children: Five Stringed Instruments and A Piano, the 18th session of the Concert Series for Children, was held at the Kobe College Auditorium. The concert started at 14:00, and included an audience of 365 parents and children.

This concert was really special as six professional musicians were invited so that the audience would fully enjoy their piano ensemble with five stringed instruments: violin, viola, cello, and double-bass. Their names were Shinji Syaku (violin), Yasuko Kikumoto (violin), Akiyo Takamura (viola), Kazutaka Amada (cello), Shin’ichi Minamide (double-bass), and Yukari Sassa (piano). Ms. Kikumoto is one of our graduates and Mr. Minamide and Ms. Sassa are teachers at Kobe College.

The concert started with the first movement of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, in which five stringed musicians gave a lively and rhythmical performance to the audience.

Mr. Minamide also served as the MC of the concert. He first talked about the aim of the concert, and then introduced each instrument with short music to highlight its features. First was the piano with Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum of Debussy’s Children’s Corner. Then, Ms. Kikumoto’s violin, with Gossec’s Gavotte. The third piece was for viola with Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep of Man Arai, which strongly attracted the audience. Then came the cello with Tournier’s Promenade a L’automne. The last was for double-bass with L’éléphant from C. Saint-Saëns’ Le Carnival des Animaux. All these instruments are in the same category of stringed instruments, but have different tones with a lower tone as the instrument size increases.

Next, the characteristics of each instrument was featured by playing the same song, The Other Day, I Met a Bear, an American folk song arranged by Mr. Minamide. This was quite good to show how unique each instrument was.

Then, Leroy Anderson’s Plink Plank Plunk was used to show pizzicato, a method of playing instruments by plucking strings with the fingers instead of pulling a bow across the strings. All the audience laughed when players rotated their instruments while playing.

About twenty children went onto the stage when the MC called for doing Radio Gymnastic Exercise No. 1 by Tadashi Hattori on the stage, with the music played by the quintet.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, a famous piece to show off exquisite skills, was then played by the quintet, with a big bee suddenly appearing on the stage, which was finally swatted away with a rolled up score by the MC.

The next program was Happy Birthday Variationen. First, children who reached their birthdays on that day were invited onto the stage. And with all these children in the center, variations of the same melody were played, from Mozart style, Vienna waltz, jazz, tango, to Hungarian. It gave fresh impressions when the same melody was played in different styles. The tango variation naturally inspired clapping from the audience.

The last piece of the first half of the concert was a musical quiz created by Mr. Minamide. Children were encouraged to count how many animals they could hear in a piece with the melody of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, coupled with several other pieces related to animals, such as Papillons and Mary Had a Little Lamb. Everybody became quite serious about writing down their answers on answer sheets when they heard that six winners would be awarded prizes. After a fifteen-minute intermission, the second half started with the fourth movement of F. Schubert’s Die Forelle. The session was quite thrilling as five different instruments played in turn. Then came Japanese songs: Kosaku Yamada’s Akatonbo (Red Dragonfly), Nagayo Motoori’s Toryanse, and Ryoichi Hattori’s Yamadera-no-oshosan, for which one child came onto the stage to lead as a soloist of a mokugyo wood block, and five instruments followed that wood block. When the wood block became slower, the ensemble also became slower, stirring the audience. This was a point where the audience really became unified with the musicians.

Then, the audience was enchanted by the beautiful performance of Piazzolla’s Libertango, followed by Disney Medley. This familiar melody naturally inspired clapping from the floor. In Monti’s Csardas, Mr. Shaku appeared from the back of the hall so that the people were overwhelmed by his powerful violin performance. It was most impressive to see that piano and other instruments never fell off track in spite varying tempos.

The last program was Mozart’s Turkish March. Originally this piece was composed as a piano solo. But it became a rather special march, as Mr. Minamide arranged it for a piano and string quintet.

Then the time came for announcing the answers to the quiz and names of the prize winners. The prizes were cute stuffed animals, a jumbo bag of snacks, and a calendar of Kobe College. There was a very lucky family in which both a parent and a child won one prize each. The very last program was a song for everybody, Sanpo from the animation film My Neighbor Totoro.

After the concert the children got hands-on experience with musical instruments. This time there were violins, a cello, and a contrabass. Mr. Minamide’s enthusiastic performance as the MC made the contrabass the most popular among children.

This concert gained a special popularity. And the most deserving persons were Mr. Minamide, who served to select the program as well as players, arranged each piece, and even worked as the MC, and of course all other performers. I was impressed by the fact that all the staff members worked with confidence and politeness. All these showed that they raised their levels, compared with several years ago. (Written by Tomomi Tsugami.)

19th: Christmas Concert

The Christmas Concert for Children, the 19th session of the Concert Series for Children, was held on Saturday, December 8 at the Kobe College Auditorium. Part 1 started at 11:00, Part 2 at 16:00, with 1,111 participants in total.

Nine graduates of the Outreach Program took part in this concert to offer a gift of music to the audience with an ensemble of flutes, pianos, an organ, and vocals (A.Y., S.I., R.U./flute, Y.E., Y.T., N.T./vocals, Y.N., A.S./piano, and S.K./organ).

With tone chimes as a signal to start the concert, flutes played hymns, then the origin of Christmas was recited on the stage with visual images, followed by an ensemble of W.A. Mozart’s Kirchensonaten. The concert featured a story of a Santa Claus who became depressed, and fairies who tried to encourage him with music. The fairies serenaded him with a vocal solo of G. Caccini’s Ave Maria, a four-handed piano performance of March, Russian Dance, Trepak from P. Thcaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, a flute trio of Dance of the Reeds, and a piano and flute ensemble of Waltz of the Flowers. Christmas songs, such as Joy to the World and How Far Is It to Bethlehem?, were also played followed by a positif organ and flute ensemble of G.F. Händel’s Sonate fuer Floete und Bezifferten Bass. The depressed Santa Claus then became cheerful again, and assisted children in decorating a Christmas tree and singing Awatenboh-no-santa-kuro-su as well as Jingle Bells together. Such participation easily united the audience with the performers.

After the concert, the children got hands-on experience with the musical instruments, including flutes, tone chimes, glockenspiel, organ, and also with a violin, as it earned the highest popularity at the last concert. Children looked very happy to touch the instruments and make sounds.

It was quite hard to make a concert for children on a specific theme with all classical music. But we performers rehearsed and held many discussions so that we could be united and concentrate on stage. We got quite anxious before the performance on that day, but the audience’s warm applause encouraged us very much. After the concert, we received various comments: “It was great to listen to live classical music;” “The program was perfect for children;” ”I really enjoyed it. I will definitely come again next year.” We also noticed the fact that we needed many staff members working behind the scenes. Such experiences would definitely serve for our future development. (Written by A.Y.)

Ashiya City Nishiyama Kindergarten

On Wednesday, December 5th, we held a Christmas concert at Ashiya City Nishiyama Kindergarten (K.I./piano, A.K./flute, M.M., T.O./voice). This was to introduce a variety of music from classical to Christmas songs along with a story to discover the most precious treasure in the world.

The concert started with an adventure to discover the treasure by flying on a magical carpet, with a soprano duet of A Whole New World, followed by Ah, Je ris de me voir from C. F. Gounod’s opera, Faust (Are the jewels the most precious in the world?), Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee (attacks by the Bad Witch), E. Poldini’s The Dancing Doll (gift performance by the Good Witch, who became a new member of our adventure). Then, we played the school song Yuki (Snow), G. F. Händel’s Joy to the World, and Asei Kobayashi’s Awatenbo-no-Santa Kurohsu with the children, who participated with vocals and body percussion. They sang in a very lively manner with wonderful clapping and stomping performances. When everybody chanted the magic spell of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” a beautiful goddess appeared on the stage. And children sang When You Wish Upon a Star, praying to discover the treasure with her kind help. At the end, they noticed that the most precious treasure for them was this world, where everybody lived on, and finished the adventure with the song It’s a Small World.

Among comments after the concert, there was a request for playing songs more familiar to children. The balance of selecting music is always a big challenge for us. (Written by K.I.)

Hibarigaoka-gakuen Primary School

We visited the Hibarigaoka-gakuen Primary School to hold a short concert at each of the four classes of fifth graders on Friday, December 14 (E.A., K.I./violin, Y.I./piano). With the theme of “on violin,” we carefully prepared so that children could understand the characteristics and charms of the instrument.

The first half of the concert featured music related to animals. It started with L. Anderson’s Waltzing Cat. We violinists hid behind a white board while showing some parts of the instruments to the audience so that the children could easily discover with which instruments the music was performed. Saint-saëns’ Le Cygne and Burgmuller’s La Chevaleresque were also included to express the violin’s various tones.

Then we explained about the violin, its history and construction, and showed how to use the bow. The latter half started with Monti’s Csardas. Violinists walked among children while playing, sometimes even crouching toward children, so that they could easily see how our fingers and bows moved on the finger boards. Lastly, we played a violin duet of Christmas songs.

After the performance, children were free to touch the instruments. Some children who had started violin lessons performed several pieces for the class.

Although the time was limited to only forty-five minutes for each performance, we were almost overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and curiosity of the children toward the violin. Different responses and reactions to the same performance in each class also taught us a lot of things. (Written by E.A.)

Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital

We played at a concert at the Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital on Thursday, September 13 (M.M./vocal, A.K./flute, M.N./piano). The program included Natsu-no-omoide, You Raise Me Up by R. Lovland/B. Graham, Chopin Medley, and O Mio Babbino Caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, with some time allotted for a quiz and stretch exercises, so that the audience could relax themselves both physically and mentally and better understand the joy and beauty of the music.

There were many patients and caregivers at the concert. At first some patients had quite grim faces, but after stretch exercises with a piano performance of A. Gagnon’s L’amour Reve, their faces gradually relaxed.

The audience listened to the episodes of Chopin and flutes with great interest, and enjoyed singing Sukiyaki by Hachidai Nakamura together. So we found that people tended to respond very eagerly when we properly encouraged them to do so.

We also reconfirmed the great power of music, seeing patients, who first stood still but started to loosen up, clapping their hands, or singing songs with tears running down their cheeks. We already knew that playing music or reading books are important. But we also felt the importance of seeing the audience with the effort of communicating with them. (Written by M.N.)

Koyano-sato Special Needs School

At the Large Conference Room of the Julia Dudley Memorial Building of Kobe College, the Autumn Concert for Koyano-sato Speical Needs School was held on Friday, October 19 (M.M., N.T. [guest]/vocal, A.K./flute, K.Y./piano).

For those who love music but have almost no chance to go outside, the program consisted of various songs related to travel.

As this was the second time following last year’s performance, six students in total from Koyano-sato Primary, Junior High, and High Schools joined the concert with their teachers and family members, which made the stage very lively.

With H. Arlen’s Over the Rainbow and J. Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads, we started the musical journey. We first arrived at the country of the Fall Season, where we played Akatombo and Mushi-no-koe. In the latter piece, students joined us by making various sounds of insects with maracas, tambourines, and bells. They looked so happy and it was just like real insects singing the song.

Then, we made a travel of train with A. Dvorak’s Humoresky. After enjoying the music by moving their bodies, children joined in singing Sampo from My Neighbor Totoro. Next was You Raise Me Up by R. Lovland/B. Graham. And Momiji was sung all together to close the concert.

For this year, we added the feature of “travel” to the concert, and prepared props of red dragonflies and a train so that children could participate more easily. Therefore, we were quite busy before the performance, but the happy faces of the students at the concert made all our efforts worthwhile. We were encouraged by hearing the words: “They were really enjoying themselves with their legs moving.” We learned a lot from the concert: for example, the proper height of our viewpoints or timing to go closer to the children. We would like to make use of this experience in our future concerts. (Written by M.M.)