New Album "The Best of Tohoku Youth Orchestra 2013～2023"
commmons.lnk.to/TYO
The album includes numerous masterpieces performed by past members of the orchestra, including "The Last Emperor," "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," and "Behind the Mask. In addition, “Now, the time is tilting” written for the Tohoku Youth Orchestra by director Ryuichi Sakamoto in January 2020, has been made available as a soundtrack for the first time.
We have compiled the archives of photos and chronology of activities that did not fit into the booklet into a separate booklet .
Please feel free to take a look.
You can also print it out.
The printable version (zip) also includes a guide for printing.
ENGLISH　BOOKLET
tohoku-youth-orchestra.org/release/
Our story began with the School Music Revival, a fund spearheaded by Ryuichi Sakamoto in 2011 to assist with the inspection and repair of instruments at schools affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Two years later, students from these schools performed under the baton of Mr. Sakamoto at Lucerne Festival ARK NOVA Matsushima, a music festival held in Miyagi Prefecture in the autumn of 2013, with the aim of bringing hope and promise to the region through the power of music. Thus, the Tohoku Youth Orchestra was born. Now, over a decade later, our orchestra continues to serve as a symbol of the region’s recovery, composed of primary, junior high, and high school students from Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima-the three prefectures hardest-hit by the Tohoku disaster. These students, who usually play in their school’s respective ensembles, all come together in various forms depending on the program or performance. However, the activities of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra go beyond performance. We see the orchestra as an opportunity for growth: one in which the youth of Tohoku can come together to learn from and perform with world-renowned musicians, discover the world through interactions with people they might not otherwise have met, and share these experiences amongst friends. Our aim is to channel the youthful energy of these students into the region. We hope to invigorate the surrounding adults, environment, and Tohoku as a whole, ultimately creating a bright new future for these students to thrive. “There are many things that can only be expressed through music. Music can communicate things incommunicable with words. Our hope is to inspire many through this music.” With these sentiments in mind, we hope to share the sensitive yet resilient sounds of the region-from tragedy to harmony, from Tohoku to the world.