ギャラリー – Bach | Music | Conducting | Ensemble Direction | Violoncello da spalla | Viola da spalla | Conducting

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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Tenkara

Blog, Fishing / Koji Otsuki

The last time I fly-fished was probably in 2009— it’s been too long. I do bass fishing every year, but fly fishing has been quite elusive for me. One thing I’m excited about this summer is that I’ll be free from the pressure that hindered me from fly fishing in recent years and that I deserve to spend some time in small streams in southern Vermont! During the Marlboro summer festival season, I used to fly-fish, mostly by myself, just to get out of the pseudo-reality that Marlboro really is, and to enjoy the beautiful nature that helps me find what’s truly important in life. This summer, after a few

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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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I’m back.

About myself, Random / Koji Otsuki

Writing blogs is, for me, like yapping away with someone. It is storytelling. It is sometimes recording of my own critical thinking, but more often than not, it is a good distraction from unwanted thoughts. It had been procrastination. I just went through a phase where I needed to face those unwanted thoughts and do something about it. I needed to prioritize the process of crawling through this phase and be done with it. I had put off so many things in order to focus on the process, and I missed out a lot during that time… That is why I didn’t blog for almost 14 months. But that phase

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I’m opinionated

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

The people in my circle think that I’m opinionated. Well, my circle is very small— it really means something when someone tells you in your face that you are opinionated. Not good. I may seem like a dogmatic, inflexible, arrogant, pompous, stubborn and perhaps even prejudiced son of a gun. And I shouldn’t even deny that— trying to deny that is by itself a pompous act. But… I rarely provide my opinions on anything. I’m just too ignorant to be with those people around me in Philadelphia who all belong in the higher socio-economic class than I. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the self-deprecation for which I’m wrongly known.

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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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Being Japanese in America

1件のコメント / Essays, Random Thoughts / Koji Otsuki

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

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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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