Tears at the Competition

　I was fortunate to involve in this years NHK National Choir Competition (N-Con). There are three categories and they are; elementary school, junior high, and high school. One of the features of this competition is that all choirs are “club-activity choir” in school. Because they are club activities, each student’s passion to involve the club does matter a lot for a success of the choir. And when it comes to the final round of the competition, all students are singers who voluntarily spend time to choral music in the morning before class starts, during lunch breaks, and after school.

　Because it is “competition,” the judges have to give the ranking at the end. And it is, indeed, heart-breaking to see many students shedding tears of vexation and regret after the results are given. I wished I could give the gold medal to each one of these students!

Prague (Czech), Los Angeles (USA) and Tokyo (Japan)

I have been very busy since the late September till now, traveling to all over the world to do recording and mixing. Now, I returned to my place finally!

Anyway, I can't provide much information about what I did for some projects, but here are some pictures from the trips. I will let you know more as I am allowed to tell :)

In Prague (Czech)

In LA (USA)...

In Tokyo (Japan)

Special Stage for NHK National Choral Competition

   In Japan, there is an annual choral competition named NHK Choral Competition (N-Con in short). There are 3 categories; elementary, junior high and high school, and over 2000 schools in Japan participate each year.

NHK is the only state broadcast station in Japan, and it is like BBC in England. If you are in the US, you could think it like PBS station. The final round of the competition is to be broadcasted live on TV from NHK Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo.

   This year, I was asked to arrange a song for special stage performance of elementary school category. Special stage is the segment that pickup choir from different participated school performs a choral song with 20 to 30min practice when they are waiting for the results of competition. This year, I arranged "Nbaba Love Song" which is originally an opening theme song for an TV animation. NHK wanted something fun. So, I arranged with Samba rhythm, claps and so on so that audience could participate also.  The competition was done on 10/9, and I was glad that the piece and performance were well received. Also, I was able to talk to some teachers and kids from different schools, and I was glad that kids liked the arrangement although they don't know the original animation. :) As a composer, it is always nice to have feedback from performers.