Hi, Michael. On 2009/10/22, at 15:04, Michael Burrell wrote: > According to Len Kawamoto, a hornist with our San Luis Obispo Wind > Orchestra of Japanese heritage, Japanese grade-schoolers are > required to participate in some form of music from second grade on. Not sure what you mean by "grade-schoolers". Elementary school kids (1st to 6th grade) have (general) music lessons at school and so do junior high (7th to 9th). At Senior high it becomes an elective subject unless you go to a special school. At junior high and some elementary schools there is the opportunity to join the school band and this is probably when most kids get their first chance to play. There is a problem in that the 3rd year of both Junior and Senior High is when kids need to study for entrance exams to the next level and quit their extra-curricular activities. You can imagine the effect on long term musical education. Of course there are exceptions especially in the more affluent areas of Tokyo, which, with a population of 13 million provides quite a large supply of kids.
> Wind Ensemble Festival on Jeju Is. S. Korea in the summer of 2008. > All of the youth groups we came across...Korean and Japanese were > very accomplished and impressive. We in the west do not realize how > many of the eastern Asian nations have really taken to western music > traditions. Yes, very true. I didn't bring my horn to Japan at first as I had expected to take up a Japanese instrument of some kind, but it wasn't long before I was invited to join orchestras and wind bands. The only other groups I have had a chance to take part in in 30 years here were for mandolins and recorders. It's sad that at school there are ubiquitous opportunities for wind band but very few for traditional Japanese instruments, or for strings. I hope that the recent (small) trend towards combined 7th -12th grade secondary schools will lead to changes. > Witness the professional Kosei Wind Ensemble from Japan, among > others. Sienna Wind is good, too. And there are many excellent bands taking part in the contests every year. The one I took part in has long been overtaken and is usually eliminated in the local rounds these days. If you want info on this I can find out. Personally I'm not too keen on the competitive side of music and haven't kept up. must rush... Simon _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
