2 Concerts and Marimba Lesson 4

I have had a busy 3 days. Monday 15th, the Toho students hosted a mini-concert. I played with Abe Sensei, and it was very well received. I also played a short Takemitsu work with Sho. I was happy with how things went. In all honesty though, I was disappointed by most of the other repertoire in the concert. Most of it was novelty marimba music, and cheesy arrangements which I'm not particularly drawn to... Akiko - a student at Toho, did play a stunning version of Miki's Marimba spiritual though, and this made up for the other pieces. All in all, we had fun, and of course I was thrilled to play with Abe Sensei.

Tuesday 16th, I attended a concert at Senzoku College. This campus was AMAZING. There is obviously a lot of money in this school. The grounds are gorgeous, and where Toho Gakuen has no concert hall, Senzoku has a beautiful sounding hall which was filled with great music last night. There are 100 percussion majors at Senzoku under Okada Sensei. Last night, Igor Lesnik was the guest percussionist. Also on the program was another version of Marimba Spiritual. The soloist at Senzoku wore an outrageous sequined red white and blue top, white pants, and a flowing velvet cape that made him look a bit like david bowie. (I love david bowie, but maybe it cheapened Miki's work a bit in this context....) Anyway, I was excited to hear Lesnik's works, and even more thrilled to meet him afterwards. He was in a frantic rush when I met him, so he dragged me along with him as he rushed off to sign cds. We quickly organised some lessons in Zagreb for 3 days in July. He was a lovely man, very firm handshake, and big bear hug after our 3 minute conversation. I can't wait to spend time with him at a slower tempo!

I have begun to realise limitations of some percussion music. I have been feeling a bit frustrated exclusively playing repertoire for the Linz Marimba Competition, the set piece is so difficult, and makes far more musical sense to me on the piano. So, I've been very angry with myself and a little angry at the limitations of our repertoire. Because classical percussion music is really quite young, there are problems sometimes with writing good literature. I was depressed with my ability, and was thinking "What can I play for my lesson??!!!" so I threw caution to the wind in this, and played Igor Lenik's Midnight Pieces for Solo Vibraphone. I needed some time away from the marimba, and "THE COMPETITION NOTES". I only played the 1st movement, but Abe Sensei was delighted. She invited me to do some concerts with her, and also invited me to come back to Tokyo when I'm free, and teach the Toho Students vibraphone. GOOD DAY HUH?