WaFoo outside of WaFoo: Riverside Opera Company

　今日、リバーサイド・オペラ・カンパニーのコンサートがありました。WaFooから一雄さん（コントラバス）と由喜ちゃん（フルートとピッコロ）と私、一平（チェロ）が参加しました。これはリッチモンド・カウンティー・オーケストラ(RCO)を統括する指揮者のアランのもう一つのプロジェクトで、構成メンバーはRCOのメンバーに数人のオペラ歌手が加わるという形になっています。

There was the concert of Riverside Opera Company today and Kazuo (contrabass), Yuuki (flute & piccolo) and me, Ippei (cello) participated in it. This is another project of Maestro Alan Aurelia, the conductor of Richmond County Orchestra (RCO), and the project consists of RCO musicians plus several opera singers.

　Trinity Lutheran Church という私は初めての場所でのコンサートだったのですが、とにかく音響がいい場所で、私のチェロから聴いたことがない音が出てました。大変、気持ちよく演奏ができました。

The concert was held at Trinity Lutheran Church where I had never played before and the church had great acoustics. My cello was singing by the voice that I had never heard. I really enjoyed playing in there.

　今回は『プッチーニ・フェスティバル・2008』と題され、イタリアの作曲家プッチーニの生誕150年を祝うコンサートでした。プッチーニを中心に数々のオペラの曲を演奏しました。

This concert was entitled as "Puccini Festival 2008" to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Italian composer Puccini's birth. We performed the excerpts from several operas of Puccini and some other composers.

コンサート後の写真 The pics after the concert

White Plains Cherry Blossom Festival @ Turnure Park

　まず初めに当日の朝に突然、会場が変更になった事をお詫びします。我々にとっても青天の霹靂で、サウンドチェックのために２時間前にDelfino Parkに付くと、その会場となるスケート場は鍵がかけられ、人っ子一人いないという目が点になるような状況でした。皆様、申し訳ございません。しかし、突然の変更であっても、会場が室内から屋外に変わったのは嬉しいことでもありました。雨の予報があったために近隣のDelfino Parkの屋内スケート場へと会場が一度は変わったのですが、Turnure Park で桜に囲まれながら演奏するというのは、私たちも毎年楽しみにしていることですし、やっぱり花見は外でないといけません。花見を屋内でやるなんて、キャンプファイアを屋内でやるようなものです。
First of all, we apologize for the last-minute location change. We, the performers, did not even get notified, but in a way, I'm glad that they changed the location back to outdoor even if it was at very last minute. The cherry-blossom viewing is very popular event in Japan and of course it is very outdoor event. The festival coordinators switched the location to the near-by indoor ice rink because they were expecting some rain. Viewing Sakura from inside through windows?? No-no-no, it has to be outside. It's like doing a campfire in indoor.
　我々のコンサートに足を運んで下さった方々、そして偶然居合わせて我々の演奏を聴いてくれた方々にお礼を言います。４曲だけのショート・コンサートでしたが、大変に満足できる仕上がりになりました。
We would like to thank everybody who came to our concert and also everybody who happened to be there and listened to our performance. Although we only had enough time to play four tunes, we were satisfied with whole concert.

!! LAST MINUTE PLACE CHANGE !!

WE WILL BE PLAYING AT TURNURE PARK BUT NOT DELFINO PARK.

We deeply apologize for this very last minute place change.

Turnure Park
Corner of Lake Ave & Canfield Ave
White Plains, NY

White Plains Cherry Blossom Festival

Hello everyone. We hope you all are enjoying seeing all kinds of flowers blooming. My friends and I were performing at Washington Square Park on the other day. People were just roaming around and enjoying the serene view of the colorful flowers in all over the places. The tree of flowers which attracted this old-school Japanese man the most with its bright color of pink was, of course, the cherry blossom.

WaFoo is going to participate in White Plains Cherry Blossom Festival. The sponsor of the festival just switched the site due to the rain in forecast.

May 4th (Sun) 12 noon
Delfino Park
53 Lake St.
White Plains, NY
(914)422-1348
Link to the map

The festival is going to take place from 12 noon till 5pm and WaFoo is going to perform from 12pm sharp for half an hour. Please come around.