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For my (past) conducting students

Today was the last day of the semester for me at Temple. It’s that time again— time to shake hands with some of those students, saying good luck. I’m usually very proud of my students leaving my classes as better musicians. I wish if I could keep track of their progress, each one of them. There are a few things I repeat in my class. Thought I’d collect them here so that my students could come back to them if they want to. Most of those tidbits are about music, not just about conducting. Perhaps I’ll keep updating this post to keep track of my own progress… For My Students: […]

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Selfish self-deprecation

1件のコメント / About myself, Bach, Music / Koji Otsuki

Fairly recently, I had an opportunity to play the prelude from Bach’s cello suite VI on the violoncello da spalla to a small crowd in a modest suburban church. The pressure was almost non-existent; I’d played some cello duets there in the past and I was already familiar with this sanctuary. Not many classically trained musicians and experienced listeners were there. Many of them were just kids…! It was a very good chance to start playing Bach solos on the spalla for someone. I was even going with five full synthetic strings to make some technical elements more forgiving, although my preference to gut strings hadn’t diminished a bit. But

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Gamut Bach Ensemble

Bach, Music / Koji Otsuki

In March 2005, I organized a Bach ensemble and performed 4 cantatas in a concert in Tokyo. It was a group consists of the supportive and willing members of Bach Collegium Japan and my friends from Geidai (Tokyo University of the Arts)— I can say it was an ideal ensemble in the realistic realm, or perhaps it was beyond my plausible ideal… In some sections I had those players whom I’d pick for my fantasy Bach ensemble! And despite my shortcomings as a director, we as a team did put together a successful and memorable concert. I believe I had learned and grown as an organizer and conductor through the

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The Compleat Violoncellist

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

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,

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Ketchup Talk

Blog, Early Music, Essays, Music / Koji Otsuki

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

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Violoncello piccolo da spalla

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

(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

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Do you like Bach?

About myself, Bach, Blog, Music / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted in January 2010) Sometimes this happens to be the first question I ask upon meeting someone new. I ask this to a stranger hoping that I don’t have to engage in a small talk which I’m utterly bad at. And I ask myself: what are the odds they say no to that question…? I really don’t get to meet people from outside the music field anyway. They all should have something to say about Bach. What a nice way to skip the small talk and get straight to the substantial conversation! You do not find many musicians who are into fishing or football. No, not soccer, I mean

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