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Musicians caught in Japan quake

March 11, 2011 By

The BBC Philharmonic, based in Manchester, was shaken but unharmed by the quake.

Here’s the BBC report. Tomorrow’s concert in Yokohama is cancelled.
Conductor Daniel Harding has also tweeted that he’s safe. 
Just played Mahler 5 for the 50 who made it… Hope the other 1750 are all ok. Wonderful atmosphere on strangest of days.

Would have played just for the 69 year old who walked 4 hours across Tokyo to make it to the concert! That’s dedication to music!!

Daniel is due to conduct the New Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo a second time tomorrow in Mahler’s fifth symphony. Tonight, many of the musicians are having to sleep on the concert hall floor.

The Maggio Musicale company of Florence, in Tokyo with Zubin Mehta and director Nicolas Joel, have posted on their website that they were shaken up but uninjured.
Here’s the message:

Terremoto a Tokyo: stanno bene i componenti della tournée

Giungono notizie rassicuranti da Tokyo. Tutti i componenti della tournée del Maggio Musicale stanno bene.
Per i familiari che volessero avere notizie dei loro parenti a Tokyo, numero dedicato 055 2779254

Fittingly, they are performing Verdi’s, Forza del destino.
I’ve received accounts of music stands flying around the rehearsal room. Flautist Nicola Mazzanti reports:

This ordeal has made me appreciate the great virtues of the Japanese people.

The American violinist Anne Akiko Meyers told WQXR that she’s OK:

The American violinist Anne Akiko Meyers had just landed in Osaka after the quake struck. “I heard of the previous earthquake but had no clue that there was another devastating one until we got in our car to go to the hotel,” she said in an e-mail. “The driver had to circumvent the city to arrive at the hotel an hour later because of the traffic and the Hilton hotel in Osaka (!) is sold out because of it.

“Every channel on TV shows unbelievable devastation and there is a feeling that we just landed in the ‘emergency zone.’ I don’t have concerts till next week, and have not heard anything from the presenter as we have literally just plopped into our room.” Meyers is scheduled to perform next week with the Osaka Philharmonic.

More follows.
03/11/11 11:30 AM | filed under: main |

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