Dan Ettinger Passionately Conducts Concert in Tokyo

Charity concerts to simultaneously raise funds for social welfare projects, and pay homage to the sea, were held in various cities in Japan over the last few weeks. The concerts not only raised awareness of worthwhile social projects and the ocean environment, but also moved audiences with the power of classical music.

The series of concerts were brought to a dramatic conclusion by Dan Ettinger, resident conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra as he led his musicians to a triumphant summer finale at Tokyo Opera City. Ettinger and his orchestra were accompanied by renowned solo violinist Reiko Watanabe.

Fund-raising activities at the charity concert venues

The Nippon Foundation provided grants to fund the full cost of producing the concerts, including advertising, and help to plan ticket sales in all four locales around Japan.

The revenue from the ticket sales will be utilized for local social welfare projects in all three areas, such as child-friendly community programs, and support for the free telephone counseling service Life Line (Inochi no Denwa).

The Sapporo concert was held at the Nitori Cultural Hall by the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra with cooperation from the Hokkaido Shimbun Press. About 1,600 people attended the event. The concert raised approximately 3.2 million yen for charity.

The funds will be used by the Hokkaido Social Welfare Association for such projects as renovating facilities within the Kita-hiroshima City Rehabilitation Center. The newly renovated facilities will reopen in December of this year.

The refurbished and expanded facilities at the center will have a large community hall, a cafe, and a kids room. The center will be used by the young, the elderly, and the disabled, according to Hirokazu Nakagawa, deputy director of the center. The center will be run by local people volunteers.

The Fukuoka charity concert was held by the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, with the cooperation of Nishi-Nippon Newspaper, at the Acros Center in Fukuoka. The orchestra was accompanied by the Mirai Chorus, a local Fukuoka choral group.

Local Singer performs with orchestra

The chorus and orchestra together performed Japanese songs about the sea, including Song of the Sea, We Are Children of the Sea, and composer Masaaki Hayakawa’s musical arrangement, Celebrating Sea Day. About 750 people attended this concert. The proceeds from the event totaled about 2.9 million yen, and will be donated to the Child-Friendly Urban Development Network. This network has to date held eight public forums on the theme of child-friendly urban development, thereby further enhancing community awareness and activities devoted to this subject.

The fourth location involved in the nationwide concerts was Yamagata Prefecture, specifically Tendo City, where the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra performed with the cooperation of Yamagata Broadcasting and Yamagata Shimbun at Tendo Civic Cultural Hall. About 700 people attended.

Among other works, the orchestra performed Mendelssohn’s Overture "Fingal's Cave" and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Symphony "Scheherazade," popular classic pieces enjoyed by the Yamagata audience. Proceeds were donated to suicide prevention and the work of depression alleviation undertaken by the local telephone life line.