The orchestra is just starting to congregate in the lobby of our hotel in Tokyo (The Tokyo Dome Hotel) before we make the journey onto Fukuoka this afternoon.
Yesterday the orchestra spent the morning rehearsing at the nearby Bunkyo Civic Hall with our soloist for the tour, Emmanuel Pahud. Although it has been just over three years since the orchestra last performed the Vivaldi Concerti with Emmanuel on an ACO Subs tour, it did not take long for the orchestra and Emmanuel to hit their stride together again.
After the rehearsal and after a short rest back at the hotel, the orchestra travelled onto the Australian Embassy in Tokyo where they were hosted by the Australian Ambassador, Murray McLean, and Alf Moufarrige from Servcorp who sponsored this concert. The concert was very well recevied by the Embassy staff, Servcorp guests and other notable dignitaries including four former Japanese Ambassadors to Australia. In particular the audience were particularly impressed by the skillful musician who appeared all too briefly on stage to play the claves during the performance of Arvo Paert's Fratres. (Not bad for an Orchestra Manager.)
Afterward a wonderful reception at the Ambassador's residence, Alf treated the orchestra to a post-post concert reception at the Tokyo Park Hyatt, or as Alf like's to refer to it, his home away from home. Although I am not a film buff I understand this film was featured in the movie "Lost in Translation." Certainly the bar prices were lost in translation...
Thank you again to the Ambassador and his staff especially Akiko, Naoko and Nancy for looking after the orchestra so well at the Embassy, and of course to Alf for presenting the concert and of course for his post-concert reception hospitality.
Damien Low
Orchestra Manager
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