A message for the Yokohama Sankeien Moon Viewing Festival: Enjoying music across genres
Having been born and raised in Yokohama, there are places that have been familiar and cherished to me since childhood. These include Yamashita Park, Marine Tower, Harbor View Park, Nogeyama Zoo, the elegant Western-style houses of Yamate, the beautiful Japanese garden of Sankeien, the majestic temples and shrines of Kamakura, and the coastline. As a child, I would go to these places with my parents to play, and they were also tourist destinations visited on school trips. Since starting my career in music, I have had the opportunity to perform frequently at places like the Western-style houses of Yamate, the British House, Berrick Hall, the Ehrismann House, Bluff No. 18, and Sankeien.
Yokohama has changed so much since I was a child. I remember in elementary school social studies class, my teacher pointed to Tokyo Bay near Sakuragicho and said, "In the 21st century, a city will be built on this sea." At the time, I thought, "On the sea?!" But a big, wonderful city really has been built on the sea. I think we should carefully preserve the new city alongside the old streets, buildings, and valuable cultural assets.
I currently perform primarily with Shanti Dragon (Takashi Kongo - saxophone / Akemi Hayashi - piano, composition, arrangement) and Shanti Dragon 3, which includes cellist Christopher Satoshi Gibson. Shanti Dragon's repertoire is diverse, encompassing classical, popular, children's songs, folk songs, film music, Japanese popular songs, and original compositions, and we perform these songs with our own original arrangements.
From a young age, I took piano lessons at my relatives' house in Kamakura. I studied under my relatives, Mr. Minoru Matsutani (1910-1995) and Ms. Midori Matsutani (1943-1994), and was exposed to a wide range of music, not just classical. I am grateful to both teachers for allowing me to enjoy and play music without being limited by genre today. Mr. Minoru Matsutani was a graduate of the Tokyo Academy of Music, but after the war he led a jazz big band and performed, so he was truly a pianist who could play a wide range of genres from classical to jazz. He also taught vocals and produced many famous jazz vocalists, including Nancy Umeki, who won an Academy Award after moving to the United States, Ayako Hosokawa, Takako Ueno, Teruhisa Togo, Shigeo Maruyama, and Mizue Yamazaki. On the other hand, he also taught in the Japanese pop scene, including Candies and Hiromi Ota. One day during a piano lesson, I was handed a sheet of music and told, "Okay, today we'll practice solfège (basic training in Western music education, mainly focusing on sight-reading)." I remember trying to sight-sing the unfamiliar score without making any mistakes. It turned out to be a new song by Hiromi Ohta, which I only found out later when I heard it on a music program on TV (laughs). It was a fun lesson that wasn't just about technique.
Ms. Midori Matsutani is a classical pianist who graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts and the Berlin University of the Arts, but after returning from Germany, she also devoted herself greatly to performing contemporary music. Among her many recordings, the LP "Rhapsody in Blue / Matsutani Midori Plays Gershwin" (released on CD in 1997), released in the 1980s, is one of my favorite albums. It is a performance that brilliantly expresses the wonderful world of Gershwin, which combines the atmosphere of classical music and jazz.
This autumn, Sankei-en Garden will once again host a moon-viewing event.
Sankeien Garden is a charming Japanese garden, boasting beautiful flowers that change with the seasons, and its tasteful ancient buildings include nationally designated important cultural properties and Yokohama City designated tangible cultural properties. The trees, flowers, buildings, and spaces within the garden exude a positive aura, and each visit brings a sense of peace and happiness. The harmony between nature and architecture is magnificent, and the sight of the full moon rising above the three-story pagoda as seen from Rinshunkaku, and the beauty of nature and man-made structures coexisting, is beyond words.
This year's Sankeien Moon Viewing Festival will be held from September 18th to 23rd. Every year, people of all ages, from children to the elderly, come to the festival. To ensure everyone enjoys themselves, this year we will be performing songs related to the moon, as well as children's songs, movie music, anime songs, J-pop, and Showa-era popular songs, including Hiromi Ota's "Cotton Handkerchief." This year's performance at the Moon Viewing Festival will be at Shanti Dragon, starting at 6:20 PM on Tuesday, the 21st. Please come and enjoy the collaboration of the Japanese garden, the moon, and music.
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Shanti Dragon Trio
Shanti means "inner peace" in Sanskrit. The dragon is not the dragon as it is perceived in the West, but rather a dragon in Asia that symbolizes powerful and auspicious forces, and is a god of water.
Shanti Dragon was originally a duo consisting of pianist Akemi Hayashi and saxophonist Tadashi Kongo, but when cellist Christopher Satoshi Gibson, who was also Hayashi's piano and solfège student, joins them, they are referred to as Shanti Dragon 3.
This trio began with a concert at the Yokohama Museum of Art Hall as part of Yokohama Art Live 2003, and the recording of the CD "Yume Futaya" (Two Nights of Dreams), featuring all of Akemi Hayashi's compositions, in the same year. They have also actively engaged in volunteer performances at facilities for people with disabilities.
Christopher Satoshi Gibson left Japan to attend university in the United States, temporarily suspending the trio's activities. However, after returning to Japan and becoming active in various scenes, he rejoined Shanti Dragon in 2019, and the group resumed activities as Shanti Dragon 3.
Pianist, composer, and arranger. Born and raised in Yokohama.
From a young age, she began playing piano and electronic organ, studying piano under her relatives, Minoru Matsutani and Midori Matsutani. Under their guidance, she was exposed to a wide range of music, from classical to contemporary, popular, pop, and jazz, and began performing while still a student at music college.
After graduating from a music university, she worked as a music instructor at Yokohama Contemporary Music Academy and other music schools, and as a solfège instructor for the Yokohama Municipal High School Wind Ensemble, before establishing Maple Piano School (Isogo Ward, Yokohama City). Utilizing her career as a piano instructor and performer, she dedicates herself to teaching students of all ages, from young children to adults.
They perform in various venues and live houses in Yokohama and Tokyo, including concerts sponsored by the city of Yokohama, the Yamate Western-style houses (British House, Berrick Hall, Bluff No. 18), the Sankeien "Moon Viewing Concert," and the Yokohama Jazz Promenade. They frequently perform original compositions, and have released over 100 original songs, including those on their CDs. They have released 5 CDs to date.
They also actively participate in volunteer musical performances.
Born in Michigan, USA. Began playing the cello at age 4. Participated in summer programs at Tanglewood, Indiana University, and Interlochen while in high school. After graduating from Yokohama International School, she enrolled at Yale University in 2005, double-majoring in philosophy and political science.
While still a student, she passed an audition with cellist Aldo Parisot and studied cello with Ole Akahoshi of the Yale School of Music, who was Pierre Fournier's youngest student and also served as Janos Starker's assistant for many years. She also studied chamber music with Wendy Sharp at the same school. In 2009, she won a prize at the FOM Competition at the same university. In the winter of 2012, when she won a prize at the International Association of Musicians Newcomer Audition, she received praise from one of the judges, violinist Narimichi Kawabata, who said her playing "allows the listener to enter the world of the music."
In 2017, under the auspices of the NPO Emotion in Motion, she held the "BACH Solo" unaccompanied cello recital series at Minato Mirai Small Hall, Tiara Koto, Tokorozawa Muse, and Suntory Hall "Blue Rose." She has collaborated with violinist Ikuko Kawai on TV Tokyo's "100 Years of Music" program recordings and concerts, and has performed at venues such as BLUE NOTE TOKYO (2020), Cerulean Tower Noh Theater (2019), and Mitsukoshi Theater (2018). She is active mainly in Tokyo, Kamakura, and Nagano.
He began playing the saxophone at the age of 12, studying under Hisatoshi Muta (President of the Japan Band Directors Association, former conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Band) and Makoto Suda (Professor at Musashino Academia Musicae). He then joined Yanagisawa Musical Instruments Co., Ltd., one of the world's three major saxophone manufacturers.
After working in instrument manufacturing, research, instruction, and management, he became independent. In 1995, he established Congo Saxophone Studio, offering saxophone repair, lessons, and performance services. In 1997, his CD "OUR TRIBAL MUSIC" won the Best New Artist Award from Jazz Life magazine. He was appointed by the Yokohama City Board of Education and served as a lecturer at Yokohama Municipal Minato Commercial High School for four years. In addition to concerts and recordings at venues such as the Yokohama Museum of Art Hall, Minato Mirai Hall, Kanagawa Prefectural Music Hall, Sankeien Garden, and Yamate Western-style Houses, he actively engages in volunteer performance activities at Yokohama City University Hospital and facilities for people with disabilities and welfare facilities in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Kyushu, and Hokuriku.
To date, she has collaborated with top Japanese musicians, visiting musicians from the UK, Italy, Switzerland, and France, as well as calligrapher Suisen Nakatani, dancer Kazuo Ohno, actor Stiart Burnham-Atkin, narrator Akira Kodama, holder of an Important Intangible Cultural Property designation Bokusei Mochizuki, and many others. She has also collaborated with many people across genres. She also instructs a community saxophone ensemble that mainly performs Bach chorales.
Several CDs and DVDs have been released to date.
