This performance builds on the work done with Hikaru Hayashi, and is the first public performance of a new style of singing. Rikuya Terashima, who has handled piano and conducting for the group in the past, will be invited back to conduct.
Along with the annual performance of Scenes from Hiroshima, there will be a singing performance of Terashima’s On the Wind toward Home Town composed in 2005. The lyrics are from the poet Kozo Takeuchi, who died at the age of 23 fighting in the Philippines during WWII. This young man’s powerful, touching words speak across time to a modern audience. This performance of the medley will add another of his poems with a song written by Terashima. There will also be a performance entitled “Little Box of Songs,” a collection of Japanese lyric songs, with Terashima on piano and singing.