Dear Kentaro-san,
Hello Kentaro-san, how are you?
Thank you for the recital back in 2019. Thanks to you, the Nihon Buyou performance together with your cello performance and Japanese song was a success. The pandemic hit right as we started discussing our next performance.
20 years and 4 performances have passed with our Kagehime performance being the latest one, since I was introduced to you by my friend when I mentioned that I wanted to dance to live cello music. Since you are based in Vienna and I’m in Tokyo, whenever we meet we are always rehearsing or performing, and we have never taken the time to sit down and chat. But for some reason I have a deep sense of comfort in knowing that even if my choreography or dance expression is not enough, I am safe with you.
I wonder where this comes from?
With the pandemic, it made me pause and question whether my dance is helping others, or if it is just for self-satisfaction. I felt like I could find a path to an answer by learning about how you face your music.
What does the cello, and music, mean to you?
Yuko Nishikawa
Dear Yuko-san,
I always really enjoy creating pieces together with you.
I look forward to it each time and learn so much. Thank you very much.
I feel no difference at all in Japanese and European culture when we collaborate, and even wonder whether such difference even exists in the first place.
In answer to your question, I think that self-satisfaction is not a bad thing.
It’s actually one of the best moments in life.
There was once a great musician named Pablo Casals.
He said, “If I was able to perform the way I wanted to in a concert even in just one part, I’m happy”.
His words tell us how hard a live performance can be, and the proper way to live as an artist. Not just how an artist should live, but how we should live as a human being.
For me, the cello is simply, a lovely instrument.
And music, I think, embodies the flow of time.
Sincerely,
Kentaro Yoshii
from Vienna