本番に必要不可欠な事

今月は心身共に大変な月だった。普段のオーケストラのリハーサルと本番に加え、プライベートのソロパフォーマンスが2つ重なった。この貴重な経験から学んだことを書き残しておきたい。

1：練習には十分な時間をとり、体に異常を感じたら練習を直ぐに止めること。

去年もこういう事があった。怖いもの知らずの私は短期間で全曲を仕上げようとして手を壊した。👎 結果、手をかばって演奏するのとそれから来る緊張が重なり結果は散々であった。😭

なので今回はかなり早い時期から練習を始め、手に不快感があったら必ず練習をストップして手が回復してから練習を再開する方法をとった。効果は大だった。練習に時間をかけることによって自分の中にある音楽が成熟するし、それを表現する手や身体が健康であればより良い効果をはっき事は言わなくてもお分かりだろう。

2；同じ時間、同じ場所でばかり練習しない

パフォーマンスの時は、音響が、客が、気温がと文句を言ってられない。与えられた環境の中でベストを尽くさなければならない。だから練習時間帯も練習場所も出来る限り違う環境で練習することをオススメする。寝起きのボーっとしてる時に難しいパッセージを弾いてみるとか。響かないところでわざと弾いてみるとか。そうだ、通しの練習の時にワザと赤ちゃんを野放しにしてもらった。（笑）そうすると、たくましくなる！！少々のことでは動じなくなる。

3：練習の時にも120パーセントの結果を出す様に努めて練習する。

小心者の私は、いっつも緊張した時のプランA、B、Cみたいな非常対策のための練習ばかりしてきた。それが今頃最悪だったということに気づいた。いつも最高の出来を出す様に練習しないと、本番120パーセント出せるはずがない。こんな事に今頃気づくなんて😢 今回は音楽とイメージだけに集中してその他のことをいっさいかんがえずに演奏にのぞんだ。結果、予想以上の効果があった。自分の恐怖を取り去り最善の音楽の表現に集中する練習ほど、効果の出るものはない。

チベット砂ギツネ

コンサートなんかで観客が気になったら、観客はこの何とも無気力な表情をしていて、何を考えているのか分からないこのキツネだと思えと書いてあった。分からなくて当然だよねって思えてくるらしい（笑）

 

Candlelight Recital -speech-

Thank you for joining our recital last night. As usual, my speech is far from perfect😅,so I will write down what I wanted to share with you last night.

Hope you enjoyed our performance. We, performers,audience and stuffs make our recital together,so every concert is different.

Everytime I met new people, I always say

‘I’ve received so much support (experience/wisdom) from my teachers .And it is now my turn to pass it on to the new generation.’.

I have been saying this for many years and now, I am surrounded by new friends and supporters who understand my wish and kindly offer me their support. Last night’s concert,I couldn’t Accomplish without their help. This is really priceless and I appreciate so much. This English line was made by my great friend as well. She understands me so well, and help me whenever I am in trouble .💖

smartphone and internet have really changed our lifestyles. We can do a lot of things without seeing anybody or going anywhere.

But because of that, I believe the salon concert like last night is a good opportunity to find new friends who enjoy live music and direct conversation. We do not have to talk nothing so serious . We can talk  ‘ today’s weather is wonderful, shall we take a walk little bit together ?’ Something like that. Or ‘ you look great !’ Is fine as well. Those little conversation make you feel warm 💓

I hope I can connect people. I hope I can build on this salon concert better and better with everyone in the room.

See you all very soon.

日本語

リサイタルにご参加頂きありがとうございます。

コンサートは演者、観客の皆様、そしてこのコンサートをより良いものにと手を貸してくださった
スタッフ一同の全員で完結するものだと思っております。
今日はいかがでしたか？
このコンサートを開けるまでに7年が経ちました。
’’今まで’師匠に学んだ価値のあるものを次世代につないで行きたい’’
とみなさんにお話しして回ってたら、気づくと素晴らしい方々に巡り会い、一緒に何かやろうと賛同してくださる方が増えました。
今日ここにもその方々が沢山いらしております。
バイオリンを弾いて、やりたいことをお話ししていたら素晴らしい方々と一緒にコンサートが出来るようになりました。これがプライスレス、お金で買えない大切なものでしょう。
違う職種の方から良い影響を受けています。叱ってくださる方もいます。そんな方々とたわいもない話をすることが、生きていく上でいかに大事か痛感致しております。
昔、ヨーロッパでサロンコンサートが流行っておりました。その訳が今はわかります。
色々便利なものが出てきた反面、人との交流が激減した今の時代に必要なものはこういう機会に好きなものを語れる人たちと出会うことなのでは？と思います。心が温かくなるんですよね。
このコンサートで、そしてこれからも続けるサロンコンサートで、いろんなご縁があったら良いな、そのお手伝いができたら良いなと思っております。
この機会に賛同してくださる方が増えたら、一緒にコンサートを作っていけたら良いなと思っております。
今後ともどうぞよろしくお願いします。

 

 

 

 

MTT Candlelight Recital @ HK Country Club

 

 

MTT candlelight recital

 

 

We will have a Candlelight Recital at Hong Kong Country Club on Nov.12th from 7:30PM.🎶

It Is very nice season to experience classical music at wonderful venue.

We will play the Beethoven “Kreutzer Sonata”as well! It is so rare to listen this sonata from close distance.

And let’s talk about music ,concert or life after the concert with fantastic wine and light snacks😉

It will be one of your memorable concert …

PLS join us.

(Age Limit : 12 or above)

▪️HK Country club member: pls contact club directly

▪️  Non club member: Pls fill out the form ⬇️

https://goo.gl/forms/8z956Wo8BbzKluCs1

 

Useful tips for orchestra playing from Marylou Speaker Churchill.

I was studying Orchestra Excerpts from Marylou Speaker Churchill who used to be the principal of Second Violin in Boston Symphony Orchestra for many years.

She is very tall and cheerful person. And she always encouraging the students. Also she always find the time between the rehearsals or concerts and she practice scales etc. and read books.

She taught me how to play in the orchestra from scratch .*Orchestra playing needs very different skills from solo playing.

She was nice but never compromise anything about playing.

Once I recorded 15mins long orchestra audition tape. I thought I did my best. But she found one 16 notes was out of tune. And she asked me to record them all again 😨

When I was studying with her ,I remember that I was practicing intonations quite a lot. Since my hands are small,I have to practice more than normal players.

I will wrote down some useful tips from her.

1: When we have difficult passage, try to smile 😊 Smile relaxes your body.

2: When you stand in front of music stand, try not to stand so close to that. You may stand you can see whole music . If it is too close, you cannot see the entire music line and music will not flow.

3: Practice fast passage with metronome. You may not realise that you are not together with metronome, so please record when you practice.

4: read a lot of books. That enlarge your music scale.

If I found out more , I will write down later. I hope it will help you some.

 

 

 

 

How you comment on musician makes different of music world

I thought quite long time about people’s reaction for musician’s performance.

How does people comments on musicians and musician’s work?

I knew that if performer is your favourite ,friend or performer who has great reputation,

We listen without any prejudiced opinion.

You can relax to enjoy the music.

If you do not know about the performer, you probably listen to the music with full of curiosity.

If you know that the performer has good reputation ,but you have not listen to the performer yet,you will listen to the music with full of expectation.

Then if you know the performer who does not have good reputation or who is not your favourite , how do you listen the performer? Probably we will have a lot of different answers for that.

My dearest teacher Masuko Ushioda always told me that “‘do not go to only great concerts,also go to unknown concert .And if you like that performance, please ask yourself that what did I like that performance about? Also if you do not like the performance, please find out why I did not like the performance and learn from that,’’

I must say that I was super cocky girl when I was young.😝

I even comment about Joseph Szigeti’s recording to my teacher Masuko .

Tomoko: I do not like Szigeti’s playing.

Masuko:Why you do not like his playing ? with smile.

Tomoko: His sound is similar to mosquito ,not beautiful.

Masuko: Then you try to find your favourite sound from now on.

As you know that Szigeti is one of the legend violinist in the world.

Not only that , He was a Masuko’s teacher!!😱😳🤭

It was old recording 📽not CD📀,so that was a noise 😑

( You know how stupid I was or I still am ?!!)

When I was young in Boston, I heard Joshua Bell’s Brahms Violin concerto at Boston symphony hall and his performance was not convinced me at that time.

His posture was different from others because of his height, and I felt he is suffering to handling the violin. As I know now that my opinion was not totally true.

And go through period of time, now he is one of my favourite violinist.

He handle the instrument like part of his body, and his many kind of tone colours bring music alive.

What I would like to say today is

Try to enjoy the music with pure mind like white paper.

Try not believe to other people’s opinion about players. Your opinion is important.

And…

Your opinion might change any time, so always open your mind to listen to music.

Live performance is only one time shot, therefor influence is big.

And it is very different each performance even same performance, so do not decide so soon about your opinion. You might change yours later. You can say that I did not like today’s performance of the player…

Live Performance is powerful, but only one time shot. But your opinion stays long .

When you talk about your opinion to the others, please take care how you deliver the message.

That one time opinion sometimes affect to musicians very good or very bad.

Musician is human being as well. We play sometimes good ,sometimes bad.

If your intention is good, of course we would like to hear your opinion even negative for our future.

Please do not influenced by other people’s opinion and do not spread out that especially if you have not listened that by yourself.

I believe this is very important to enhance positive music world. 😌

Charity Concert for flooding and Landslides in West Japan

We will play charity concert🎻🎹
“The July 2018’s flooding and landslides in West Japan Contributions”on 25Aug.2018 (Sat.),6PM@ 9/F Matsu & Kiku room The Hong Kong Japanese ClubHosted by The Hong Kong Japanese ClubSupported by The Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong. If you join us, please fill out the form below⬇️ Registration Form

Charity Concert for flooding and Landslides in West Japan

We will play charity concert🎻🎹

“The July 2018’s flooding and landslides in West Japan Contributions”

on 25Aug.2018 (Sat.),6PM

@ 9/F Matsu & Kiku room

The Hongkong Japanese Club

Hosted by The Hongkong Japanese Club
Supported by The Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong

If you join us , please fill out the form below⬇️

https://goo.gl/forms/IUXcXllee0sopepX2

Salzburg concert

I went to concert in the Mirable Hall of Mirabell palace in Salzburg.

It was beautiful venue but I do not think it is suitable for listening classic concert. The acoustic is too much echo , so I cannot hear the details time to time. And because of the temperature (they do not have AC), strings goes down many times 😞

I do not think it was the best situation for them to perform.

Other than that ,the baroque violin soloist, Dimitris Karakantas tried his best to bling out his character . It was fun to listen his solo. Sometimes his playing reminds me middle eastern music even though he was playing Vivaldi😄 Well everybody has different taste… I enjoyed to listen that.

I hope Ensemble 1756’s intonation will improve better in the future. I am sure that the room temperture did not help that as well … It was tough for them.

 

Salzburg Music Festival

I went to one of the best concert in my life yesterday at The house for Mozart in Salzburg .

Violinist Renaud Capuçon plays three big pieces with his gorgeous sound especially high tone.

I was moved with the cellist ,Clemens Hagen’s playing.

He is so stable and he has enormous musical passion. And I must say his sound is so big and thick. He used the Strad , but I think he brings out the best sound out of that instrument 👍👍👍👍👍

The pianist , Trifonov has huge tone and he plays all three difficult pieces without any daubt😆

Their characters are different, but when they play together , it mixed so well and became huge one big oil painting with lots of colours.

One old elegant grandfather next to me was closing his eyes and smiling in piece. I never seen the happiest expression before. That makes me feel so warm.

I could tell the audience who were there last night loves music .

I was so happy to be there.😌