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Thread: Top Japanese H.S. band tours Florida

  1. #1
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    Top Japanese H.S. band tours Florida

    If you happen to live near Tampa, FL or are traveling in western or central Florida next week (March 25th - 29th) you have the opportunity to see and hear one of the top performing high school bands from Japan. The group's name is: "Inagakuen Sogo H.S. Wind Orchestra". We shared a concert with them about 4 years ago and they blew us away. These students are tops! They start warming up hours before a performance with breathing exercises, then warming up their horns, and then quite a bit of time tuning.

    Although YouTube videos aren't always the best, watch a few of these videos of their performances:

    Mars and Jupiter from "The Planets" (Holst)
    ...notice their stage deportment - every musician is sitting on the edge of their seat, every music stand is the exact same height. Although they're pretty animated and move about with the music, there is no foot tapping.

    Here are two more samples:
    Salome "Dance of the Seven Veils"

    "Hymn to the Sun with the Beat of Mother Earth"

    Concert Announcement...

    Inagakuen Sogo H. S. Wind Orchestra

    Florida Concert Tour - 2014
    ______________________________

    One of Japan?s finest concert bands, winners of the Vienna Grand Prix, 15-time Gold-Medalists at the All Japan Band Contest, and featured performers/clinicians at the FMEA All-State Convention in Tampa is returning to Florida. This stellar group of 114 musicians will offer an assortment of new and traditional works combined with an exciting pops display unlike any you will have experienced. Featuring works of Lehar, Takahashi, Mascagni, Wagner, Sousa and more.

    Tuesday, March 25th
    Gaither High School, Tampa - 7:00 pm
    . . . . . . . . . .

    Wednesday, March 26th
    University of South Florida, Tampa, Concert Hall - 12:30 pm
    Fla. Southern College, Lakeland, Branscomb Auditorium - 7:00 pm
    With a Special Methods Clinic presentation at 5:00 pm
    . . . . . . . . . .

    Friday, March 28th
    Lake Mary High School ? 10:00 am
    Lyman High School, Longwood ? 7:30 pm
    . . . . . . . . . .

    Saturday, March 29th
    Downtown Disney Waterside Stage ? 11:00 am
    __________________
    Last edited by RickF; 04-01-2014 at 04:19 PM.
    Rick Floyd
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    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
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  2. Thanks Rick for the heads up! Speaking of Tampa, I had the pleasure last night to attend a tuba recital at USF given by Jay Hunsberger. He and his pianist transported us to another place and time. A beautiful and mesmerizing performance. I believe he was playing an Alex F
    Bob Tampa FL USA
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  3. #3
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    Hi Bob,

    Yes, Jay has an Alex-F that he plays quite a bit. I remember when USF and he hosted the SERTEC a few years ago. He sounded great on that 'F' with his quintet. I spoke briefly with him afterwards and told him I noticed he never pulled a slide. He said that the Alex 'F' has excellent intonation and he hardly ever has to pull a slide. Jay's a very fine musician for sure. A former Harvey Phillips student I believe.
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  4. #4
    I'm in Orlando this week but not next! Too bad……...

  5. #5
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    Inagakuen High School Wind Orchestra is not touring Florida again but I'm always blown away with their performances. I host 'listening files' for our band and one of the pieces we're playing for our "Screen and Stage" concert is "Les Miserables" (Michel Schonberg, arr. Kazuhiro Morita). Usually I try to find recordings of military bands or other professional ensembles but I could find none better than the Inagakuen H.S.W.O. playing this beautiful arrangement for band. Check out their recorded live performance which was uploaded on YouTube a few years ago. Notice their attention to the director, posture and wonderful musicianship.

    Les Miserables - Schonberg, arr. Kazuhiro Morita
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  6. #6
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    I watched the video of Les Miserables. I quite agree that the band sounds wonderful, and it is rather amazing at how good a high school band can be.

    However, in "watching" the video (as opposed to just listening to it), it came across to me as a wee bit creepy. If you look at all of the mostly girls in the band, their hairdos for many of them look like an exact copy of each other. And they sit so straight in their chairs, and they look exactly alike and behave exactly alike and probably sound exactly alike. There is something missing. It is so entirely regimented that the human physical expression element seems missing. But again, I can't say they don't play well and get excellent results. And I am quite sure they are all super kids.

    I had an interesting conversation a while back with the fellow who conducts our New Horizons Band, Milo Winter. He is in the South Dakota Band Masters Hall of Fame, has an auditorium named after him, was given a special award by the governor of South Dakota, and on and on. He is rapidly approaching 90. His high school band (which repeatedly got the highest marks at contests, was the first band in South Dakota to march in the Rose Bowl parade, and many more notable things) and a high school band from Japan did a joint concert at some point in his high school band teaching career. His band was excellent, and so, too, was the band from Japan. They played together and shared things for most of a week. The prepared pieces that the Japanese band did were polished and really exceptional. At one point in the week, they sight read some new music together. Much to the bewilderment of Milo and his band members, the Japanese band members had a real hard time with the new music. Milo's band could play it much better at first look than the Japanese band. Milo learned that the Japanese band would play the prepared music for entire years to get it completely polished and near perfect.

    I surely can't say that this is the norm with Japanese bands, but it seemed the case with this particular one. In any event, it surely did take very good musicians to play the prepared pieces as well as they did. I don't know if they were as regimented as the band in the video clip above.
    Last edited by John Morgan; 02-25-2022 at 04:35 PM.
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  7. #7
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    Thanks for the comments John. Yeah the H.S. bands in Japan rehearse and play a lot. Our MD is the director of Bravo Music who has a lot of dealings with the bands in Japan. He told me they all practice a lot to get a good product in the end. It may be that they really never learn how to sight read well, not sure. I remember when they shared a concert with us in S. Florida many years ago I was blown away with their 2 hour warmup starting with breathing exercises and buzzing. Really demanding program.

    As far as the hair style for girls, I noticed that too. Could be a trend in Japan like some hair styles in other countries. They do have wonderful posture and emote quite a bit.
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  8. #8
    These bands can be truly amazing, but my feeling is similar to John's. A clarinetist from the CG Band had his personal motto: "Moderation in everything...except moderation."

    Now and then some of the band folks would complain that we were getting over rehearsed. IMO opinion they were wrong! But surely musicians need to keep spontaneity in our playing. I think that has to come from inside us, along the lines of "You don't stop practicing something when you play it without mistakes; you practice until you are unable to make a mistake.

    "I also find a natural conflict about the visuals of a performance. I think visual presentation matters, but again there is a limit (IMO). We want to music to be beautiful, compelling, true to the composer, etc. Whatever winds up being not synchronized visually (within reason) is easily accepted by the audience.

    When I watch the wind blow the tall trees in our back yard, the trees move in a similar way, but not perfectly. Yet it is lovely to watch. Can you relate?

    This is my feeling about concert situations. For a drum corps or precision drill team etc., the visual aspect is part of the show and should be perfect. Different rules.
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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by John Morgan View Post
    However, in "watching" the video (as opposed to just listening to it), it came across to me as a wee bit creepy. If you look at all of the mostly girls in the band, their hairdos for many of them look like an exact copy of each other. And they sit so straight in their chairs, and they look exactly alike and behave exactly alike and probably sound exactly alike. There is something missing. It is so entirely regimented that the human physical expression element seems missing. But again, I can't say they don't play well and get excellent results. And I am quite sure they are all super kids.
    I lived in Japan for six years, and while I was not involved in music at the time, I have to say, at the risk of sounding racist or chauvinistic, that this is typically Japanese.
    David Bjornstad

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