Yesterday was the school's 'cultural festival.' We held the show at the Performing Art's Center in Tamana. The students danced and sang, and from what I saw of it, it was quite nice.
I was asked to play violin for about 10 minutes, so I played three pieces with piano accompaniment. The first was the theme from the movie, 'Princess Mononoke.' We played the theme while three students sang as a sort of backup. It was a short piece, and I think the audience recognized the theme and enjoyed it. The second was 'Salut D'Amour' by Elgar, which also came off well, I think. Last was a piece that is very popular for violin currently in Japan. It's by Taro Hakase, and the title is something like 'Passionate Song for the Violin.' Taro Hakase composes music and plays it on the violin on a Japanese talk show. Etsuko suggested it might be good to play, and the pianist had the music. It's a kind of cabaret piece, originally played by violin, accordian, electric guitar, and percussion. So we recruited three teachers to play percussion: bongos, maracas, and tambourine. They came up with a name for the band, and the last piece was announced as Julie Sensei, Tanoue Sensei, and the Three Amigos. They didn't really have much experience with percussion, so that piece was more fun than musically precise. I didn't get to see too much of the students' dancing and singing, but I've been told they're producing a video of the entire day's performances, so it'll be a trip to watch it later.