My first recital when I was 6 years old, my brother was 4 years old. My first task was to introduce my brother Kaoru to the audience, however, I made a small mistake. I said “This is my brother, Toru Tagawa”. If I had leave it at that, only my family, my teacher and fewContinue reading “1st Recital, 初リサイタル”
Category Archives: Blog
American Flag, アメリカの国旗
I just learned that my mother in law is the 6th generation from the person who invented the first American flag and one of the signers for the Decoration of Independence in 1776. His name is Francis Hopkinson. For his design, we was give a quarter cask of public wine (45-50 Litters of wine). YouContinue reading “American Flag, アメリカの国旗”
July 4th, 7月4日
Happy 4th of July! For many years, American Orchestras perform the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky with fireworks to celebrate the 4th. This year, I don’t think we can see this happen anywhere. What does 1812 Overture have to with America? It is because of the use of the Canon in the piece. When I hearContinue reading “July 4th, 7月4日”
18
My wife, Laura and I celebrated our 18th Wedding Anniversary. We were both Orchestra Violinist with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra at the time, and she thought she was marrying a violinist. Many years later, she became a wife of a conductor, and I am married to a Doctor of Music. We lived in three differentContinue reading “18”
Picture, 写真
Pictures capture memories. I am thankful that during my youth, my mom always took pictures wherever I was doing anything, concerts, recitals, sports day, arts day, etc. She sent me many of the pictures from the past last week which must have taken her a while to do. Here is one of them, since IContinue reading “Picture, 写真”
My Name, 名前
My father named me, Toru, after a famous Japanese composer, Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) who composed November Steps which features Shakuhachi and Biwa with Orchestra. My father, Kokichi, is really interested in Jazz, and you might think that there is no connection between a classical composer and jazz, but Toru Takemitsu wrote about Jazz theory inContinue reading “My Name, 名前”
Famous Cellist, 有名なチェロ奏者
I met Mstislav Rostropovich at my first Orchestra rehearsal of the Kurashiki Junior Philharmony Orchestra when I was 9 years old. I had no idea how famous he was at the time (not until College when I became music performance major). I was a talkative child, so I was talking to my friend, and heContinue reading “Famous Cellist, 有名なチェロ奏者”
Happy Father’s Day, 父の日おめでとうございます。
Happy Father’s Day. I thought to talk about my father today for Father’s Day post. My father, Kokichi, loves Jazz. He loves to play Jazz, and think about music theory and anything about Jazz. Jazz is the reason why my family came to USA. He wanted to study Jazz at the world’s best Jazz School,Continue reading “Happy Father’s Day, 父の日おめでとうございます。”
Bowing with laptop, ラップトップで弓順を書く
One of the things I do during the summer, is to put bowing for upcoming concerts for the Sierra Vista Symphony Orchestra. The picture is an example of bowing. I figure out which way the bow should go, up (v) or down (∏) according to how I want the music to flow. For this IContinue reading “Bowing with laptop, ラップトップで弓順を書く”
Internet Connection インターネット
Within my family, we use many computers at the same time, and sometimes the connection was really slow. I use surface pro computer and it does not have the connection for Ethernet cable. I learned that by having USB Ethernet Adapter, it becomes possible. I am using Amazon Basics Ethernet Adapter, and the connection isContinue reading “Internet Connection インターネット”
Toru Tagawa 