CAT'S

Today, I reminisced about my past, when I performed five songs of that musical in a small music festival. It was the hardest and the most exciting concert I had ever experienced. Thirteen people were assembled for CAT'S. They had known each other in the same chorus group. We were all amateur musicians and each of us has unique occupations, such as lawyer, aroma therapist, dancer, professor and music teacher. I was the director, arranger and pianist. When we planned the concert at first, I thought that it would be a very nice concert, but it would also become really hard work.

First, I started to arrange the music for chorus accompanied with a piano. I had gotten almost one year for doing that. Arranging music is similar to composition. In my case, I create the outline of the structure in my head. And I spend a lot of time making it more concrete. And then I write it down. It's very important to check them by doing the performance, whether it's easy to perform or not. Without the checks with performance, you will never know the performing difficulty.

In the several months, I finished the chorus arranging. Around the same time, all chorus members started chorus practice. The practice days were every Saturday afternoon at a small music studio in Tokyo. Chorus members were very friendly and enthusiastic. Every practices were going very well. They were singing and I was listening to the sound that I arranged. It was very exciting, because my arranged music had been only in my mind. It was much better than I thought.

During practice period, my friend who was an amateur flutist joined our music. I was impressed with her participation. Because It's easy to imagine the music would become more colorful. But I hadn't made the flute part on the score, I had to make it right away. By the next practice, I had already finished writing it down. And we were impressed with colorful sound.

The following week, my another friend who is an amateur dancer joined our project. He had choreographed for our chorus member. It was not a full-dress dance but very easy one. Though, their amount of practice was much increased, but they looked happy. I was very pleased that our performance was getting bigger.

We always went to dinner in Tokyo area after the practice. There are a lot of unique restaurant in Tokyo area such as, Okinawa food, Sushi in Tsukiji, Monjya yaki in Tsukishima, nice Italian cafe and so on. We had very nice times there. We were not only eating and drinking, but discussing the proceeding at the practice.

Making music is always a hard work. A lot of problems are occurred at the practice. Discussing the problems are the most important matter for improving our skills. There were many discoveries about the elements of music in the discussions. It was a lot of fun. With that, we improved our performance skill.

Practice period rolled on quickly. On the very day of concert, we enjoyed performance and music. And I played the piano with nice harmony of the chorus and the flute. It was the best performance we had ever done. Reaction from the audience was very good. It was a nice experience. I still have that performance's video tape. It reminds me of each our crew and nice experience of the concert.

If a nice opportunity is coming like this, I would like to try another piece of music and make it larger-scale than CAT'S. I know it's difficult. But I would like to keep studying and practicing music for the nice opportunity, for my future.

After a couple of months, two of our member got married. This song is Fantasy On Wings of Song that I and a flutist performed in their wedding. I accompanied the flute with the piano. I hope you like it.