Bach | Music | Conducting | Ensemble Direction | Violoncello da spalla | Viola da spalla | Conducting | Bach People

Menu

2012年1月

Being Japanese in America

1件のコメント / Essays, Random Thoughts /

This country, the United States of America, has given me numerous opportunities to be what I am today: a decent musician (though I do have some doubt about that).  It is a blessing to be able to talk about music and occasionally make some music as part of my job, it really is.  I wouldn’t have been a musician if I stayed in Japan where I grew up— I wouldn’t even have gotten in a music school in Japan due to lack of the specific knowledge or guidance to navigate through the disciplined preparation process. Well… I might have ended up being a Gagaku musician with no college degree if […]

Being Japanese in America Read More »

The Compleat Violoncellist

1件のコメント / Bach, Blog, Football, Music /

My fixation on the cello playing stems from my fascination with basso continuo. It’s not that continuo part is extremely important in baroque music — of course it is — but what fascinates me most is how continuo playing can dictate the outcome of a whole performance.  The leader of the continuo group is like the quarterback of the offensive side of a football team; not only that he/she can drive the whole ensemble forward, but also that he/she can make the soloist(s) perform so much better, in the same way a good QB can make the offensive skill position players play lights-out. My mentor Hidemi Suzuki is, by far,

The Compleat Violoncellist Read More »

Ketchup Talk

Blog, Early Music, Essays, Music /

This blog entry isn’t really about ketchup… it’s about vibrato, the intentionally produced pitch pulsation in a musical sound.  Why ketchup then?  Here’s the story.  Recently I saw an image post on facebook by a musician from Germany.  It was a picture of a page from a magazine or something, and the page had a quote in large font sizes that read: “Vibrato on every note is like putting ketchup all over the music.” I thought this is a quite good analogy— one that’s as good as it could get. I don’t mind ketchup at all— I just don’t use it as much, but once in a while I feel

Ketchup Talk Read More »

Moving complete

About myself, Blog, Random /

So, finally I made the move from the MobileMe website to this blog-oriented content management system.  Not that I’ll be blogging more often or anything, but I like the idea of being mobile and able to post a blog from anywhere, on any Internet-connected devices.  And finally I’ve made my old domain name bachpeople.com more than just an e-mail address— it’s nice to be able to use it as a URL. Since my last blog entry to my old site at MobileMe, I’ve moved from Bloomington to Philadelphia.  Another big thing that happened to me since then is that I was given the opportunity to direct St. John Passion in

Moving complete Read More »

Project Apollo

About myself, Blog /

(Originally posted on March 11, 2011) There are a few things that I always go back to when I need to uplift my spirit.  When I need to motivate and encourage myself about life, humanity, and goodness of the people, those are the things I get the help from.  I suppose everyone has those “things”— they may be some feel-good movies and/or books.  Good sermons and speeches can do that too.  Usually we take them for granted and we don’t always remember them, but when you revisit them, you sense your spirit soars. I’ve already talked about a few of those here already.  Believe it or not, I get inspired

Project Apollo Read More »

Context

Bach, Early Music, Essays /

(Originally posted on February 20, 2011) Fairly recently on facebook, I commented on an online video clip that I watched earlier.  It was of an European virtuoso violinist making a recording of Bach violin concertos.  In the video this young violinist said: “I love to hear about authentic interpretation and baroque violins; however, we do not know how it was actually played. So the freedom of interpretation is much wider than some people might think.  I do believe that I play for the people of the 21st century.”  My comment was about this quote that stuck with me… It struck me as too shallow a thought for an established violinist

Context Read More »

Long absence

About myself, Blog /

(Originally posted on February 18, 2011) Now I see that I had been away from this blog for more than three months.  The reason isn’t as trite as you think it is— I won’t say that I was too busy or I forgot that I had this blog.  Simply that my mind had been occupied with one important thing: my own health. I have a few pituitary hormone deficiencies.  My pituitary got damaged at birth, and I don’t have some important hormones your body usually needs.  It seems that my body is weaker than normal (don’t know for sure as I never borrowed somebody else’s body), and my metabolism had

Long absence Read More »

Violoncello piccolo da spalla

3件のコメント / Bach, Blog, Marlboro Music, Music /

(Originally posted on October 30, 2010) This is a dream instrument for any violinists and violists who want to play the cello.  And this is the dream instrument for a guy like me who wants to do Bach cantatas that call for this instrument.  It is, for me, a quite essential instrument!  Sure, you can go buy a chin-cello to play some cello pieces if you are a violinist/violist.  But this instrument has an E string that chin-cello doesn’t have, and it is more like a smaller cello while the chin-cello is just like a huge viola.  This  instrument is often called the violoncello piccolo [da spalla (shoulder)], or the

Violoncello piccolo da spalla Read More »

September in Japan

About myself, Bach, Blog, Fishing /

(Originally posted on October 3, 2010) I was in Japan during the most of September.  It was nice to be back in Japan for a while— seeing familiar faces and having some Japanese goodies were priceless.  But some would wonder (well, I did) why I wanted to go to Japan when not going to Japan might have been a smarter choice from a couple of standpoints; one: I just went through a financial hardship after my wrist fracture and I would need to save the money I just earned during summer; and two: I’m preparing for my first qualifying exam and I should be studying for it if I wanted

September in Japan Read More »

Lake Sadawga

2件のコメント / Bach, Blog, Fishing, Marlboro Music /

(Originally posted on September 25, 2010) This past summer during the Marlboro Music Festival season, my buddy Miles and I went to a lake we had never fished before.  We knew of this lake for a couple of years at least, but we had been too busy exploring Harriman Reservoir as our primary fishing water.  Probably we go fishing on a boat about 10 times a season, and we usually get to fish for a couple of hours at a time — that isn’t really enough to explore Harriman.  We had tried a few different boat launching sites, different tackles, and different tactics there during a few Marlboro seasons…  And

Lake Sadawga Read More »

ja日本語
en_USEnglish ja日本語