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Monday, March 14, 2005
東京佼成ウィンドオーケストラ・ウィンドメイツ感謝パーティー
yesterday went for the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra's Thanksgiving Party. This party marks the end of the AY for the band, and its members (and I am one of them).
we (calvin and I), arrived too early, so we went walking ard the neighbourhood (ard 東高円山駅). there's a pretty nice and spacious shrine, dunno what its name was though.
spacious shrine
i then spotted some nice ume blossoms in a nearby park, and off we went photo taking the umes (i presume these are umes, ie. plum, since this is the season for ume bloom. initailly thought they were sakuras though hehe...).
white ume
pink ume
red ume
after wasting enough time, we went back to the concert hall... it was snowing a little too, and there were CDs for 300 yen each! bought 4 since they were so cheap =)
boy, was i glad to attend this concert.. think this is easily the best perf i have heard in my entire lifetime! the sax guy esp, he can do things with his sax that i have never heard before! besides 3 sax solo pieces, there's a Bb and alto clarinet duet piece and a trumpet duo piece as well... super power... never heard a better live perf with 2 soloists blending and harmonising so well, even in running notes, before... best of all... everything is free =)
it was more of like an interaction session between the members of the band and us, the so called "wind-mates". before the concert, there was a good spread of lunch buffet... eat as much as i could =p talked to some nice japs, esp this TKWO manager, 井出さん (Mr Ide). A nice friendly fellow who speaks good english, talking about his past exp as a stage hand in TKWO in the Singapore concert in 2002. Jolly good fellow, really was quite entertained by him... he subsequently introduced us to some senior manager, some players, and the ticketing gal whom i correspond with かおりさん (Ms Kaori).
The concert hall was pretty much like a small-sized LT.
"stage"
seats
so the effect was very personal, it's as if they are playing and performing for you and you only. the pieces where light, entertaining but difficult pieces, and as i said, they performed them to near-perfection. between each piece, the sax guy will talk to us, intro each member, the pieces, and just, well, chat in japanese. too bad we can't understand... they rounded off the performance with Little Mermaid as the encore piece.. =)
after the concert, there was a tea reception too... final chance to mingle around. armed with a camera in one hand and a dictionary in the other, i set off to have some photos taken with some of my "Japanese Idols" =p
young cute gal clarinettist
went to take photo and talked to this young gal clarinettist first. she was playing the Eb clarinet. had a hard time conversing as she don't know much english. but found out that she had just joined the band recently and am now under probation (so she won't be there for the WASBE in Singapore later in May). I gave up talking to her in the end when she said 受かる and even after checking the dictionary, i know nuts what she was talking about! and bowed, said my thanks, and left.
next up, i spotted 井出さん again and took a photo with him...
井出さん
one thing's for sure is that he looks as nice and bubbly as he is!
and ladies and gentlemen, here is the 神 saxophonist, 須川展也さん (Mr Nobuya Sugawa).
須川さん
next i took a photo with one of the youngest member, but excellent oboist, 宮村和宏さん (Mr Kazuhiro Miyamura). He is same age as me, and he is so good... sigh.. why can't i be half as good as him?
宮村さん
last but certainly not least, we took a photo with 2 神 clarinettists, the principal clarinettist 関口仁さん (Mr Hitoshi Sekiguichi) and the lovely 大浦綾子さん (Ms Ayako Oura).
関口仁さんと大浦綾子さん
contrary to how they look in the photo, they are the nicest and friendliest persons we met there. Mr Hitoshi even said we can drop by his house for a visit sometime (we live quite close), although i doubt he's serious.. but well thanks for the thought. Ms Oura is a self-professed watermelon lover. She enjoys Singapore because there's watermelon available everywhere and all year round! She had a 西瓜食べ放題 (watermelon eat-all-you-can) in Singapore back in 2002! in Japan, she added, watermelons are only available in summer. Both of them gave us name cards, and asked us to write to them! aren't they sweet? =)
we left after that, with all the members forming 2 lines at the exit conveying their thanks. well i should be the one thanking them for such a great time. their next concert is in April, and you will be sure I will be there!
on our way to the train station, we spotted a little boy (ard 9 years old?) playing with a frog/toad, piling dried grass onto the poor creature...
poor little frog/toad
found it amusing, so took a pic of it =)
posted by winz at 9:29 AM
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2 Comments:
Very interesting, jia you! I believe you can be as good as the other band members since you have some experience. Perhaps just haven't played for sometime ya.
*Sigh, how I hope I can play one of those instruments like you*
Clarinet rocks!
By
Anonymous, at
3:51 PM
thanks for the encouragement, mate... but sigh... fingers feel to old to move liao... =p
By
winz, at
3:56 PM
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