Difficult orchestra Over 1000 performances in Japan have been canceled or postponed New Corona June 6 16:20

Due to the spread of the new coronavirus, domestic orchestras can not perform for a long time and can not be restarted immediately, and more than 1000 performances have been canceled or postponed.

According to the Japan Orchestra Federation, 37 member orchestras that are members of Japan have canceled or postponed by the 4th from the end of February on a total of 1009 performances.

Of these, about 300 performances were scheduled for this month onwards, and even after the declaration of emergency was lifted nationwide, the performances could not be resumed immediately, and we were in a difficult situation.

As for the reason why it takes time to resume, the Federation has not been able to practice with band members for the past three months, there is no way to prevent so-called "3 denseness" on the stage or in the audience, and overseas conductors. and soloists have cited such as that do not stand the prospect of Japan.

Also, if you reduce the number of seats to increase the distance between customers, you may be in the red with ticket income alone, and you may be worried whether you can continue the performance even if you restart.

“The anxiety factor remains in two major areas: funding and artistic expression,” said Hiroshi Kuwahara, managing director of the Federation. There are joys of playing and inviting customers by restarting, but increasing the deficit. I think it's a huge problem because it doesn't make sense if you go for a long time."

Trial and error for resumption

Amid growing difficulties, some people are beginning to look for new ones.

The Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, which is based in Osaka, has suspended or postponed 16 performances since late February, and approximately 60 orchestra members have stood on the stage after the regular concert on February 28. That is not.

There was almost no practice when the members of the orchestra gathered, and the trumpet player Daisuke Shiramizu continued to practice one person with anxiety.

Mr. Shiramizu said, “I was worried about what this was going to be because the concert was going to disappear. In the meantime, I started to want the audience to listen to the performance live. I look back.

After that, in response to the cancellation of the emergency declaration, the orchestra decided to resume at the regular concert on the 27th of this month.

On the 29th of last month, members of the orchestra gathered in the practice hall for the first time in about two months, and verified whether they could perform without problems after securing sufficient "social distance" on the stage.

As a result of repeating the performance while changing the place, even if we secure a distance of 1.5 meters for the string instrument back and forth and left and right, and 2 meters for the wind instrument, we can reach about 30 people on the stage, and by devising the arrangement of the string instruments I found that I could play without any discomfort.

The orchestra wants to change the scheduled songs to songs that can be played by even a small number of people, and want to make the regular concert, which is the first step in restarting, a success.

Mr. Shiramizu said, "I will continue to collect information through trial and error, and I will search for ways to continue the performance while making the most of my experience, so I would like you to support me."