Bone Marrow Bank Charity Concert - Conducting an Orchestra

The Amami Orchestra came straight off Beethoven in December and dove into Chopin the entire month of January to prepare for a charity benefit concert held on Saturday, January 28th for the Kagoshima Bone Marrow Bank. 

Conducting the first half? Me.

Talk about nerve wracking. 

Still, it was a good chance for me to put everything I learned in my years as an orchestra musician to good use. In addition to the first movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 1 (featuring Amami's resident concert pianist Yuta Tanaka), I was also tasked with conducting Puccini's famous aria from his opera Gianni Schicci, "O Mio Babbino Caro" (featuring Kagoshima soprano Kashiko Nakamura). 

In rehearsal with Nakamura-san, Friday evening before the concert. She was very energetic and provided a lot of help shaping phrasing and emotion of the aria. Afterwards, some of us went out to dinner at a local restaurant. Because the buses stop running at 7 pm, I stayed in Tatsugo, a town north of Naze, with another orchestra member.

Conducting the Chopin in concert on Saturday. Watch the performance below! It's not perfect by any means, but for an amateur debut I'm pretty happy with it. 

After my turn on the podium was over, I had to run backstage and switch out my baton for my cello, since I was playing in the second half. The orchestra accompanied the Amami Childrens' Choir in several songs, and all of the kids did a wonderful job! Nakamura-san returned to sing, and Tanaka-san accompanied on piano.



I won't take the podium again for a while, but until then, I'll continue to hone my conducting skills as the orchestra tackles some great repertoire for string orchestra, including Elgar's Serenade for Strings and Arensky's Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky.