English Blog

2010 Sound Encounters Music Camp 6/15/10 June 15, 2010

I have been to this fantastic camp for the last 11 years, and it is so wonderful to go back each year. It is located in Ottawa, KS, a very charming town, and our classes and lessons are held on the Ottawa University campus. The music camp lasts for 10 days, and we have a full activities, […]

Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony by Arnold Steinhardt 5/28/10 May 28, 2010

Dear Mr. Steinhardt, I just finished your book, and I am still very moved and touched. Your book gave me tear, giggle, and smile. You wrote a wonderful book. Toward the end of the book, you talk about Schubert “Death and the Maiden” quartet.  So I pulled the music out of the bookshelf, and played the […]

A Life of a Collaborative Pianist 5/25/10 May 26, 2010

I have been performing with so many different musicians since my performing arts high-school years in Tokyo. Pianists who play with other musicians used to be called “accompanists”, but in recent years, we are called “collaborative pianists”. It is an excellent renaming. We play music together. Many music schools and conservatories have a separate study […]

What is Sumo? 5/20/10 May 20, 2010

I have been a big Sumo fan since when I was very little, growing up in Japan. I have followed it as much as possible. There are 6 Sumo tournaments annually, January(Tokyo), March(Osaka), May(Tokyo), July(Nagoya), September(Tokyo), and November(Fukuoka), and each tournament lasts for 15 days from Sunday to Sunday. I have studied deeply for Sumo techniques […]

Schumann/Chopin Bicentennial Concerts 5/20/10 May 20, 2010

my husband and I have performed 3 concerts with a bicentennial celebration program of Chopin and Schumann this spring.  Chopin wrote “An Introduction and Polonaise” and “Sonata” for cello and piano. Polonaise was written when he was about 20 years old, before he arrived in Paris. Sonata was written in 1846. They show different aspects […]

A Movie – The Secret in Their Eyes 5/3/10 May 3, 2010

It is just amazing. I had a free day for the first time in few weeks. “Free Day” is sometimes wasted because of no schedule attitude, but I spent my free day fun and efficient. One of activities I did was to see this Argentinian movie which received an academy award for the foreign film category. […]

A Movie – The Girl with The Dragon Tatoo 4/20/10 April 20, 2010

It is a fantastic movie, one of the best movies I have seen recently. The story, the drama, the characters, the beautiful sceneries, psychology, romance, suspense, it has everything. It is a 2&1/2 hour movie, but I did not feel that long at all. The theme of this movie is pretty heavy. The original title […]

A Movie – Vincere (2009) 3/27/10 March 27, 2010

It is about Benito Mussolini and his first wife (or mistress), Ida Dalser and her son, Benito Jr. Both Ida and Benito Jr. died in the mental institutions. The movie depicts the relationship between Mussolini and Ida, and the insanity grew in Ida and Benito Jr. In the background of the movie, the fascism was […]

My Birthday 3/20/10 March 21, 2010

My birthday is in March. The school system in Japan is different than the U. S. system, and Japanese new school year starts at the beginning of April. So I was often the youngest in the class. On the first day at the high school, I was late for the school  because of the traffic […]

Another Trombone Recital 3/15/10 March 21, 2010

My dear friend, Andy Malloy, had a faculty recital at California State University-Northridge, CSUN, and I was a collaborative pianist on this recital. We have collaborated for many occasions for the last few years, and recorded together for his first CD, including his commissioned works. The new commissioned work on this recital was Steven Williams’ […]