We had our last concert this afternoon in Koganei, a subburb of Tokyo where they built a new concert hall just a year ago. It's a small, beautiful, wooden hall seating 578 and was almost full. We would love to bring it back to the East Bay. Indeed, we would love to have at home any of the halls we played in in Japan. Beautiful structures with amazing acoustics.
The audience was with us all the way, clapping rhythmically during the famous Viennese Radetzky March and sitting reverentially for almost 2½ minutes after our wonderful cellist, Emil Miland, did an even more amazing performance of Smirti ('Remembrance', played in honor of those who lost their lives and possessions in the Fukushima earthquake/tsunami). 2½ minutes is an incredibly long time for an audience to sit motionless. They only started to clap when the house lights began to come up. It was a very deep magic moment, just the kind we hope for after this work. It's very rewarding to me as the composer to feel that we touch people deeply. Many came up afterwards and told us how much they appreciated the feeling that Smirti generated.
The Sonosians did a terrific job for the whole tour, really putting their bodies, hearts and souls into wonderful performances all over the country. We've played for 6,700 people, bringing them our particular kind of joy.
Three spouses accompanied us on the tour. Lois's hubby David was again our exceedingly capable company manager and photo documentarian; Patti's tall, brilliant and soulful Warren spent time visiting the locales and getting to know the locals in ways we did not have time to; Cheryl's adoring, generous Jan did a Trojan effort schlepping, fixing, fetching, photographing and organizing anything we needed but could not seem to find.
And a word about our 'newbies,' Barbara, Gretchen (who commuted from southern CA for rehearsals with Michèle and Sunghee) and Joe. You have now been initiated into 'Sonoz', the crazy, wacky world of touring with Sonosians. You all survived beautifully, performed with skill, energy and enthusiasm and managed not to kill or be killed by anyone else. On an 18-day tour to a foreign country, that's a remarkable achievement.
Some more thanks are in order:
First to Emil.....this is the first time we have taken a guest artist on our Japanese tours. I knew you would do us proud not only in your music making (of the highest order) but also in your generous and spirited comaraderie. You charmed and moved us and our audiences, what more could we have hoped for. Michèle, Cheryl, Diane and Jason also contributed their flute, percussion and clarinet talents to give so much more variety to our programing.
Tess deserves our thanks (and sympathies) for the huge expenditure of time and energy dealing with the consulate in SF for visas plus managing all of the equipment, a humongous chore with all of the bell cases and other assorted sundries needed to make this handbell beast purr while on tour.
Last, but certainly not least, bankers are held in very low esteem these days, mostly in inverse proportion to their salaries, but Lois as the Chairperson of the Board of the Bank of Sonos (known as the BS) keeps track of the funds (as David disperses) and keeps track of who owes what. In addition she is the quiet ombudsperson who sews, mends, manages the CD sales reconciliation, creates out of nothing anything needed, sweeps the halls for anything left behind and all the while eschews any credit or recognition, the closest thing to a saint of anyone I know (Lois, I know I'll catch it for this but it's true!). She is greatly revered by us all.
If I've left anything or anyone out I can only blame it on the hour being 2:30 AM.
Jim
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