Live from Japan!

Hi Parents!
Today was the first day of our adventure! We are all very tired and all trying to work as hard as we can without screaming. Even though we all all very stressed, we are enjoying ourselves and trying to keep it all together for tomorrow's concert. We all talk about how we miss our parents and personally, I know that i miss my parents a lot. I have called them already two times but I want you parents to know that we are all enjoying ourselves. We love you guys all SO much and we want you to know that we are well.

-Moraima Avalos/Chorister



Greetings from Japan!
Everything is just dandy in the land of the rising sun. We have been working really hard but also enjoying each other's company and this new and exciting experience. The concert hall we have been singing in is beautiful and very large (supposedly it's one of the smaller venues which makes you wonder at what the large ones must be like!). Other than screaming my lungs out today trying to produce a sound (were still getting used to the new sound of the hall), my most notable experience of today took place in a bathroom. This sounds silly but many of the concert choristers had their first "eastern" toilet experience today. Its pretty much an underground toilet but a little puzzling. Although there was the option on the western toilet so it was okay. Another notable experience from today was being exposed to many people who did not speak any english. Japanese has no romantic route (with the exception of words that are english used within the language) so we are completely lost. This is why we are very lucky to have people helping us and working with us that speak the language- without them it would be utter chaos. Rest assured we are/will have a lot of fun on this trip, whilst working hard of course, and we will always be kept busy so we will never be bored.

-Hannah Chinn/Chorister

YPC is in Japan!

The choristers have officially arrived in Japan! Stay tuned for updates directly from the chorus starting tomorrow!

YPC had a busy week last week making final preparations for the trip. It was filled with rehearsals, Japanese lessons, more rehearsals, a meeting at the Japanese Consulate General's residence in NY, and even a day-long filming on Thursday for Good Morning Japan!

Below is a group picture at the Japanese Consulate General's residence. YPC spent Thursday morning there learning about Japanese culture, performing and finishing off with a delicious Japanese lunch. It was a wonderful kick-off event for the tour!



Next stop after the meeting at the Consulate General's was the filming for Good Morning Japan (Ohayoo Nippon) with NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation. It was a long shoot but was worth all the hard work. The director and crew were so nice and took really good care of the YPC. The two live segments that aired were amazing. Look out for them to be posted on the blog in the next couple of days!

The picture below is Ms.Udou, the host of the NY Style segment of Good Morning Japan:



Here's a shot of the film crew in action:

Japan Tour Rehearsals Continue

YPC heads to Japan in less than two weeks! Today's rehearsal was the third day in a row that the chorus has been working with the choreographer. Things seem to be really coming together. Check out the picture of some dancing in-action!

Mrs. Onoyama was there for more Japanese language lessons as was the crew from the Japanese broadcast company, NHK. They were prepping for the filming they will be doing at next Thursday's rehearsal to be broadcast live on Good Morning Japan! They are doing a special segment about YPC and the Japan tour. The newscaster and the producer had the chance to ask some of the choristers questions about why the chorus is important to them and what opportunities it has given them. It will be exciting to see the segment air next week (even though it will be in Japanese, so must of us won't be able to understand it!).

YPC travels to Ithaca!

Thirty-six choristers from Cantare, Concert Chorus, and Young Men traveled upstate to Ithaca, NY to join the Ithaca Children's Choir (ICC) as the resident chorus for Choral Music Experience (CME), led by Janet Galvan and featuring guest artist Kathy Armstrong.

We arrived in Ithaca on Sunday night. Sophia and Amy were heading up the trip, along with Cara Bernard and our chaperones Shannon Comp and Iris Harrison -- and Steve the bus driver. The YPC choristers were off to their home-stay families -- some staying in pairs, and one house taking as many as seven of our choristers!

Today was our first official day of CME. We started the day off at 9 a.m. with a joint rehearsal with the Ithaca Children's Choir -- the choristers enjoyed a slow, relaxed warm-up and rehearsed through several pieces with Ithaca College professor Dr. Jennifer Haywood before going to work on their African drumming and dance with guest Kathy Armstrong. This was definitely the high point of the day, as Kathy taught them some call-and-response patterns - using their voices, their bodies, and the drums. Janet then led the entire group in an open rehearsal for all of the graduate conducting participants to observe.

After lunch, the participants took their turns in a conducting master class. YPC and ICC choristers gave some fantastic feedback to the participants as they each conducted a piece; Janet worked with them on their gesture and style.

After our long day full of singing, drumming, movement, and campus dining hall food, we went swimming for an hour (indoors, because it was raining...it always seems to rain in Ithaca!)
before enjoying a pizza party and heading off to the host families for night #2.

We are working towards a workshop concert on Friday afternoon -- some of our YPC parents are even going to drive up to see the culmination of all we're working on this week! More to come tomorrow......signing off for now! - Sophia

Japan Rehearsals are in Full Swing!

Friday was the first "official" Japan Tour rehearsal. After a strenuous 5 hour long recording session the evening before (for the upcoming YPC album, It Is Possible), some of the choristers took Friday rehearsal off, but those that were there were ready to get down to business.

Below: Zach, Will, Haru, and Lindsay pour over a map of Japan before rehearsal starts.


YPC Board Member Mrs. Onoyama was at the rehearsal to help everyone with the pronunciation and meaning of the Japanese pop song "Letters" they will be singing while on tour. The song is about the letter a teenage girl writes to herself that is given back to her 30 years later as an adult. It is a beautiful song and is very popular right now with young people in Japan so is sure to be a hit on the tour. Mrs. Onoyama complimented everyone in the chorus for their ability to pick up the words quickly. Must be all the music training!


Stay tuned for more updates on this week's rehearsals!

Spring Concert!

Saturday night's Spring Concert was a great success! All five chorus divisions performed to a sold out crowd at the beautiful Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y.

This concert was a particularly special event because it was the graduation ceremony for all of the YPC's graduating seniors this year, many of whom have been with the YPC for up to 10 years!!!

The audience was made up of old and young; family and friends; new fans and long-time supporters alike. It was truly an inspiring and exciting night of music for all of those performing and in attendance.

Some program highlights included:

-Prelude had the crowd laughing and smiling along with their performance of Hard Knock Life from Annie- definitely a crowd favorite!

-Intermezzo's performance of Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Weber's Grammy Award winning Requiem Mass was truly beautiful.

-The crowd was breathless after Cantare's performance of Richard Strauss' An der shonen blauen Donau. Their mastery of German was quite impressive!

-The Young Men's performance of the South African freedom song, Tshotsholoza, gave the audience a feeling of hope and joy.

-Concert Chorus performed Picaflor Esmeralda from the YPC commissioned work Two Mountain Songs by Gabriela Lena Frank.

-Chorale's performance of It Is Possible by Eric Dozier was an inspiring performance and the audience seemed deeply connected to the song and the performers.

-The Combined Choruses sang two songs together: Take Me To The Water and Oye and every foot in the audience was tapping at some point during those two songs (many hands were clapping and more than a few people were singing along too!).

What a great concert and congratulations to all the Choristers and especially, the graduating seniors!

Conversing with the composer - Bruce Adolphe

Bruce Adolphe and I are sitting in the audience or Bergan PAC listening to an amazing quartet of young players (ages ca. 14) discussing which movement and quarter number this is, from the infamous Shostakovich.

 

Bruce went up to help the quartet with their tuning and tempo, they are doing a great job! (Francisco)

 

 * * *

The piece I wrote for this 25^th anniversary concert is very hard: the rhythms are tricky, and two of the movements are predominately in 11/16. (Francisco asked me why 11/16 instead of ¾ , which is 12/16, and I admitted that in these hard economic times, I simply had to save some notes, so I took one 1/16 out of every bar. He believed me!)

 

It is really amazing to hear kids ages 8 to 18 playing and singing such a difficult work. I suppose I could have made it easier, but the tricky rhythms are a part of my nature, and my music wouldn’t be mine if the rhythms didn’t swing and bounce in a certain way – perhaps it is from growing up in New York and always weaving my through traffic and dodging danger.  So I had no choice but to make the piece tricky. To see kids playing this is a great thrill. Two weeks ago, Yo-Yo Ma premiered a huge piece I wrote for him called Self Comes to Mind, and he played it amazingly & brilliantly including lots of very tricky rhythms. But hey! He’s Yo-Yo Ma not a 10 year-old kid whose been playing for 6 years! So, yeah that was great, but this is amazing!  Also, need I say that the YPCNYC is fantastic and is singing this piece beautifully and accurately.  They seem very far away in this huge theater, especially when the orchestra is in front of them --- so it is difficult to negotiate the acoustics, but I’m sure they will rise to the occasion and sing the place apart! By the way, Elizabeth Nunez (why are so many of the YPC conductors named Nunez, anyway?) is wonderful – very musical, inspiring, clear, and almost as pretty as Francisco, wait  -- I mean prettier! I have to thank Elizabeth for taking on such a hard piece. Apparently Francisco was a little concerned about those 11/16 bars, so he made her do it. But she is fine with it. So thank YPCNYC and thanks, too, to the amazing young instrumentalists of the Thurnauer School of Music who are playing Music Is so beautifully and full of energy! Also – young Chase Park, a 10 year-old cellist, plays a solo in my piece along with the chorus and piano. He is such a marvel, and I am sure we will be seeing him on the great stages of the world very soon. ( Hey Yo-Yo watch out for Chase!)

 

Bruce