My mom made masks for us in March, and sent it, and 4 months later, it’s finally here. We had no idea that it will take this long. My son’s mask has his favorite bullet train to ride, Shinkansen.
I was able to listen to my recording of Humoresque on record from when I was 8 years old accompanied by my father on the piano. I am thankful for my parents for saving this for all these years after so many moves. It was really neat to listen to it with my son, 8 years old, who just started to learn the Humoresque on the Cello last week. After listening to the record, I accompanied him on my guitar while my son pizzicato the whole piece. It is great to have a record player again in our house.
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 few others would have noticed the mistake, however, I said “Oops, I made a mistake” really loudly, so everyone in the audience knew my mistake and they laughed and laughed. So, this is how my MC career started. Even today, I love when people smile, and laugh at my jokes. 初リサイタルは私が6歳、弟が4歳の時でした。初舞台ではまだ自分で自己紹介できない弟のため兄の私が弟を紹介することになっていました。弟の初回なのに、僕の弟の田川とおるです。といってしまいました。そのままにしとけば家族と先生くらいしかまちがえにきづかなかっとおもうのですが、そのあと、”あ、まちがえた”と大きな声で言ってしまい、聴衆から大笑いをいただきました。今でも私の話で笑っていただけると嬉しく思います。これが私のMCの最初デビューでした。
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). You can read about him at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Hopkinson, so this means I am in-law related to the designer of the first American Flag.
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 hear canon, I think of Pachelbel. So I thought about what we can do to celebrate this July 4th. I combined Pachelbel’s Canon, Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony and 1812 Overture. I arranged this piece for 2 Violins and Cello, performed by the Tagawa Trio. Here is our performance on youtube. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/Tqxr_9ZOkGg
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 different countries to date, and we have traveled to many countries together. I remember the first time I took her to Japan, my grandma told me that marriage is a start line and not the end. At that time, I was not sure what she meant, but I realize now that when we got married, it was our start line. Happy 18th!!
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 I talked about how I became the representative of the Orchestra to give flowers to our guest, here is the photo. It’s interesting to me now, but during my elementary school years, boys were to wear shorts.
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 in publications, and my father was studying his materials during the time I was born. Toru means “thoroughly” and I try to live up to the meaning. Hope you all enjoyed father’s day. My parents-in-laws bought the grill for me (See June 15 blog), and my son and I put it together and used it yesterday for the first time. Thank you Dorothy and Paul, I thoroughly enjoyed cooking with the new grill!! Thank you!!
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 he suddenly told me to raise my hand, so I did. I was to do Rock, Paper, Scissors with another friend, and I won. The prize was, to give flowers to Mr. Rostopovich as a representative from the Orchestra. After I gave him the flowers, he gave me a kiss on my forehead, it was quite shocking for 9 year old Japanese boy. Well, it was the first ever Orchestra rehearsal in my life.
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, Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. He quit his steady job and moved the Tagawa family of 6, so that he can pursue his dream. I am almost at the age when he decided to come to America. I admire what he did, and I admire what he does still. He is active online, and he holds Jazz sessions. His love toward music is incredible, and with his support, I was able to start my music studies. Thank you Otousan(Father in Japanese). Here is his website: http://kokichit.blogspot.com/p/kokichikoh-tagawa-jazz-melodicapianica.html