Marlboro Music Festival – Bach | Music | Conducting | Ensemble Direction | Violoncello da spalla | Viola da spalla | Conducting

Bach Methodology

Bach, Blog, Early Music, Essays, Marlboro Music / Koji Otsuki

Since I left the Midwest and moved back to Philadelphia a couple of years ago, I haven’t made music with any period instrumentalists here. In early January this year, I debuted my violoncello da spalla, beautifully built by Dmitry Badiarov, in a concert of Bach cantata BWV 41 with the period instruments, but that was not in Philadelphia— it was in Bloomington, Indiana. I should be networking harder to make early music connections here, indeed, but it isn’t easy for me… It is so true that your networking base and strong connections are developed while you’re in school, and it gets much harder after that. But since I left Bloomington, […]

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I’m still here!

Bach, Blog, Marlboro Music, Random / Koji Otsuki

It’s been more than a half year since I posted the previous blog entry… I don’t know how I let the time get away like this. I still have much to say, and I still love to write when I have the time that I can somehow justify spending for blogging. One big reason I didn’t write during this past summer and in the fall this year (2013) was definitely my exhaustion at Marlboro Music Festival— it was the busiest summer I ever had. Having no true days off for 8+ weeks, and getting no fishing (to me a real therapeutic activity) during the festival season for 7 weeks, seriously

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Looking back at Marlboro Music 2012

Blog, Marlboro Music, Random, Random Thoughts / Koji Otsuki

She is here. She is here, just sitting right next to me. Next to me, in the cozy flowing air. We exchange neither words nor glances— we are just sharing the moment without being a party of two. Physical proximity is the only thing that seems relevant, and yet, the proximity can’t be more irrelevant. It does not matter to me what she is doing here; transcendence and timelessness of the idea of “us” occupy my being. I do not seek nor do I invoke her attention towards me. Her being here is what satisfies me. She does not expect nor does she invite my words towards her. My contentment

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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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Lake Sadawga

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

(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

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The 2010 Marlboro Season

About myself, Bach, Blog, Marlboro Music / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted on August 19, 2010) The 2010 Marlboro season has ended. This morning, for the first time in 8+ weeks, I woke up in a room that was not Random North 7. I’m no longer in Marlboro— and I don’t even want to think what that means to me. I know, I’ll just have to face the harsh reality. This season was a difficult one for me. Not only that I had heavier loads this year as head librarian, but also that especially earlier I had been always physically exhausted, probably because of the lifestyle-shift from inactive and calm one in the plaster cast before the season to very

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The first day-off of the season

About myself, Blog, Marlboro Music / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted on June 29, 2010) What season, you ask? It’s the festival season. I’m here in southern Vermont, working for the Marlboro Music Festival as a music librarian. This is my 12th summer working for the festival, and my 7th summer as a full-season staffer. Even while I was in Japan studying Bach, I worked on the festival’s scheduling database… I can say I maintain a good relationship with the organization, and it is a relationship I cherish very much. I’ve been driving to Marlboro in recent years. And when I drive into South Road for the first time each year, I usually get excited or relieved that I

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So I broke my wrist

About myself, Blog, Random Thoughts / Koji Otsuki

(Originally posted on June 9, 2010) It has been 40 days since I broke my left wrist. My plaster cast is near completion of its purpose. Am I looking forward to going out of the cast? Absolutely. But the crazy part is that I think I may miss it a little bit. I broke my wrist when I tripped over the arm of a floor jack, shortly after I removed the muffler from my car. My friend Banri took me to the ER, and on that day, my ordinary yet out-of-the-ordinary life of the present began. Early on, it had been an emotional roller coaster ride, with strong physical and

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