The Concert of Japanese Koto and Flute

The Concert of Japanese Koto and Flute
On September 7 and 8, in Yangon, the Japan Foundation, Bangkok and the Embassy of Japan co-hosted a concert of Japanese Koto and Flute. The three visiting Japanese musicians, Mr.Hiroshi Matsushima(Flutist), Ms.Noriko Tsuboi(Koto player) and Ms.Keiko Suzuki(Koto Player), all of them currently residing in Bangkok, demonstrated the beauty of Japanese music by playing both tradtional and modern pieces. In two days, around four hundered people enjoyed this rare oppotunity to experience both sensitive and powerful tunes flowing from Koto (Japanese traditional harp)and Flute

.Altogether, the musicians played six pieces, one of which was "Midnight Rain" by an American Koto player, Elizabeth Falconer. This clearly indicates that the beauty of the sound of Koto is something universal, which transcends the boundary of traditional Japanese music. One of the audience, a young Myanmar student sent comments on this piece to the Embassy. She wrote, "As soon as this particular piece started, I heard the sound of rain instead of the sound of Koto. I heard various kinds of rain, sudden rain, heavy rain, thunder and wind. Through this concert, I came to like Japanese music very much."After the concert, the audience had the chance to interact with the three musicians. The Myanmar audience had many questions to ask such as how Koto is played, what kind of music scores they use, how many years they have been praciticing to reach professional level. Some famous Myanmar musicians were also included among the audience.The concert was a success in a sense that the music loving Myanmar people became interested in Japanese music and its unique instruments and that Myanmar and Japanese people were able to understand each other directly through universal language, namely music.