PMF MUSIC PARTNER 2022.6.29

PMF News - Summer 2022

PMF 2022 Preview

Spring in Sapporo always flies by quickly, and when cherry blossoms finally appear here in the north, the monotone scenery suddenly becomes vivid with tulips, azaleas, lilacs, peonies, and much more, on and on in a seamless blossoming until Autumn. This vivid season also means that the festival is now fast approaching, and this year for the first time in 3 years, we are thrilled to welcome an international Academy, faculty, and artists to Sapporo for PMF 2022!

The PMF 2022 Academy

We asked the 52 members of the Orchestra Academy, from 21 countries and regions, to send messages to PMF fans and sponsors, and asked what they were looking forward to about PMF 2022. Expectations are high, and we very much look forward to welcoming them soon!

Martyna Kaszkowiak

violin / Poland

The Orchestra composed of musicians from around the world is special. By combining different cultures we can make music with a very powerful meaning. I am happy that I can be part of this inspiring project. I am looking forward to meet so many musicians from different countries and to work on great pieces with famous mentors and conductors. Moreover, I can’t wait to explore Japan.

Derrick Ware

viola / USA

The PMF Academy is such a great opportunity to work with great musicians from around the world and have the opportunity to make music together. I’m really excited to join everyone for a special experience this summer. I am really looking forward to working with all the incredible artists and the chance to play some great concerts.

Bárbara Alves Lopes

bassoon / Portugal

Thank you so much for making PMF possible. Sharing music with people from all over the world in the wonderful Japan is for me a dream come true! Music goes beyond everything!
I look forward to learn about music and playing, to progress and grow up as a bassoonist and performing artist, to meet musicians, students, music professionals and other people from all over the world, to embrace new cultures, to learn about Japanese people and culture, to share wonderful experiences with people, to self-develop professionally and personally.

Vincent Yim

trumpet / Hong Kong

Thank you for everything! I feel extremely grateful to be able to connect with all of you through music.
Studying under amazing faculties, meeting new colleagues and friends, performing with the astonishing orchestra.

Hae Sol Amy Hur

clarinet / USA

I cannot express deeply enough how humble I am to have been chosen among great musicians all around the world. It is a great honor to join PMF this year and cannot wait to create beautiful music with amazing people and share my passion. Thank you for your willingness to support me achieving my goals!
I treasure everything that PMF offers and I believe that the diversity of musicians and the high standards of orchestra performance excellence at PMF will provide an environment that will challenge me to develop the leadership, creativity, and interpersonal skills that I have been practicing and honing from the beginning of my musical journey. I also appreciate one of my dream opportunities to work with Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and other world class musicians that PMF offers. Lastly, I am excited to perform the outreach concert so I can communicate with the community and be able to share my music with students, audiences and musicians and those who are curious to understand music more. I hope to learn more about how to feel music and perform it in a way that everyone can enjoy.

In conversation with Ken-David Masur

Here we introduce a brief portion of an interview with Maestro Ken-David Masur, conducted by PMF Artistic Manager Nick Akers, in which Masur spoke of his commitment to fostering young musicians, and of the influence of his father and of PMF-founder Leonard Bernstein. He also kindly sent a brief video message!

What significance does Leonard Bernstein hold in your life and career?

Bernstein was obviously always a big figure, even in the East. He was very kind to my father. He and my father had this kinship, and I still remember so vividly when Bernstein, probably around the time he forged his ideas for PMF, came to Leipzig. I remember my father taking me to pick him up at the airport, his big white scarf when he towered over me, and his deep, resonant, fatherly, Moses-like voice. I do remember that, even though I was quite young.

Shortly thereafter he was gone, but he had already been in my system, because he had invited my father to come to Tanglewood many times. Tanglewood is a place that helped me grow as a musician － and just as a human being － experiencing the music, absorbing it naturally. In the overall picture of that, Bernstein was always the facilitator, both him and Seiji [Ozawa] of course, but the spirit of Bernstein, as you can imagine, was always on the grounds and still is. And then later on, when we came to the United States, there was more direct study, and I myself became a student and then came to understand what it was that Bernstein left.

I met his children, talked with them and many, many other people who had worked and studied with him. He was always present in that way, unique in how he approached not just music making but especially music mentoring, and passing it on. So he’s been quite a big influence.

You seem to be committed to fostering younger musicians. Does this somehow relate to your father [the late Maestro Kurt Masur] and Bernstein?

Yes, I think so. I feel my father and Bernstein loved being in conversation with the young generation, and young musicians especially, because they felt that there’s a level of curiosity that sometimes might get lost with age, and they felt inspired constantly because they would bring home stories － you could tell the energy those conversations and masterclasses had, always “oh, I never looked at it like this,” or “I never asked that kind of question about that Beethoven symphony. Extraordinary questions!”

I think they also shared an outlook on the flow of time in the mid-20th century, on where classical music was and what it was morphing into, especially in terms of interest in the East, and both Bernstein and my father were fascinated by that. They shared the opportunity to see that there are cultures far away from where we grew up that are celebrating this kind of music more than we seem to be celebrating it. I would see my father giving masterclasses and would hear about Bernstein, and there were of course his Young People’s Concerts and so on.

Basically he wanted to make sure that we can be in conversation, both musically and if necessary with words, to encourage and inspire one another, and to encourage the young generation to find a way to ensure that the music is not a separate entity, but that it really reflects who we are as human beings, and that we are using it as a language that allows us to communicate rather than as a form of entertainment, which it should never be.

That has been attractive to me, and this is why I continue to also do masterclasses and to work with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, because this is our hope: to be in conversation, because it gives back to us, and because we need to have that conversation in order to understand what the current challenges are. I think in the last two years especially we have learned what young musicians are going through when making this decision: is this life as a professional musician something that is both sustainable and that I’m willing to give everything for? You have to walk alongside that, otherwise they will throw in the towel immediately.

The PMF Link Up Concert - a collaborative project with Carnegie Hall’s Weil Music Institute

One of the most important missions of the international educational Pacific Music Festival is passing the joy and wonder of music on to future generations. PMF presents music outreach programs during the festival every year, with an eye toward festival-founder Leonard Bernstein, who championed music outreach so passionately. Since 2013, PMF has been presenting the PMF Link Up Concert, an adaptation of the Link Up program developed by the Weil Music Institute of New York’s Carnegie Hall. This program offers sixth-graders in Sapporo the invaluable opportunity to listen to music they have studied in advance performed live by the PMF Orchestra, and even to perform along with the orchestra at its culminating concert.

In past years, the students sang and played recorder along with the orchestra, but this year their participation will instead include clapping and playing handmade percussion. The samba rhythms of the Brazilian “Cidade maravilhosa” will surely give them an interesting challenge!

The rare opportunity to perform with an international PMF Orchestra in the world-class Sapporo Concert Hall Kitara continues to attract elementary schools to make Link Up a part of their curriculum, and most importantly, continues to be enjoyed by many students in Sapporo.

About the PMF 2022 Program

Sought-after violinist Fumiaki Miura will make his long-awaited appearance at PMF this summer! After his sadly canceled appearances at PMF 2021, Miura now returns with pianist Ryoma Takagi to perform on Part 1 of the PMF GALA Concert. Fans in Sapporo have anticipated experiencing his virtuosity in person ever since!

The PMF Host City Orchestra Concert, with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ken-David Masur, will feature PMF alumnus and faculty member Daniel Matsukawa, principal bassoon of the Philadelphia Orchestra, performing Mozart’s lyrical bassoon concerto! The program culminates in the original version of Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 － the first Peters edition, rediscovered in the modern era and prepared with the help of Kurt Masur － giving fresh life to this beloved masterwork.

photo: Daniel Matsukawa / The Sapporo Symphony Orchestra

Help us sustain the standards and quality of the festival!

Though our daily lives are slowly returning to pre-Covid normalcy, with careful returns to performances and international travel, we are now entering a new phase of global instability and difficulty. We sincerely hope for your continued support as we strive to sustain the festival and pass it on to future generations.

This email is delivered to those who have registered for this service and to PMF supporters.

Pacific Music Festival Organizing Committee
https://www.pmf.or.jp/en/
Sumitomo Seimei Sapporo Chuo Bldg.
1F 1-14, Minami 2 jo, Higashi 1 chome, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060-0052
TEL: +81-11-242-2211　FAX: +81-11-242-1687

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