Tuba Study in Japan

Since arriving in Japan four years ago it’s clear that my biggest frustration is having no North American or European students. The fact is that non-Japanese students are quite welcome at the Musashino Academia Musicae the only problem is that they need to pass a comprehensive Japanese reading and writing examination to be accepted. Musashino is a university and, Of course, all classes are conducted in Japanese.

I am very happy to announce that starting this April 2010, there will be a class opening for tubists who do not speak Japanese, it is not a class that offers a degree but at completion of the class each student will play a full recital and receive a certificate from the Musashino Academia Musicae.

This course itself is not new but that but that the prospectus and application form is available now in English is very new. (Rather that trying to describe this course myself I include a copy of this prospectus below).

There is much more to this possibility that just the study of the tuba. Japan offers a cultural experience that cannot be duplicated: Life within the rich tradition of this fascinating country and the availability of the frequent performances of the great orchestras, chamber music groups and soloists of the world; I’m dubious if there is any city that can compare with Tokyo in this regard.

If you might be interested in this opportunity please contact me at my email address, bomaestro@gmail.com or at my Skype address. <bobosensei>. I look forward to answering your questions.

Roger Bobo


MUSASHINO ACADEMIA MUSICAE

PARNASSOS EMINENCE COURSE
ENTRANCE EXAMINATION GUIDE


Parnassos Eminence Courses

These courses were started in 1994 for graduates of music universities or people of equivalent standing who wished to continue high level music study.

Subjects: Piano, Strings (violin, viola), Wind Instrument (flute, clarinet, tuba), Percussion (marimba or other percussion), Voice

Number of students accepted each year : 25

Application Period : January 7 to January 15

Application Process : The following must be lodged with the application.

Address: Musashino Academia Musicae Parnassos Tama
5-7-1 Ochiai, Tama-shi, Tokyo 206-0033, Japan

1. Application Form
2. 2 passport style photos (3 x 4 cm)
3. Last college attended graduation certificate copy or verification of same.
4. Recommendation (necessary only for non music college or non music major graduates.)

Date of Examination : January 23 (marimba, percussion), January 25 (piano, violin, viola, flute, clarinet, voice) May (Tuba).

Examination detail : Examinations consist of a demonstration of instrument ability and an interview.

Examination Place : Musashino Academia Musicae Parnassos Tama Campus
5-7-1 Ochiai, Tama-shi, Tokyo 206-0033

Examination Result : Successful applicant will be advised by registered mail.

Acceptance : Passports must be presented for inspection and fees paid by the beginning of term.

It is not possible to change courses (instrument) following acceptance.
Fees :
Entrance examination fee : \20,000
Entrance fee : \80,000
Lesson fee : \380,000 (yearly)

All fees are inclusive of tax. No refund can be made once fees have been paid.
The lesson fee only can be paid in two installments of \190,000, if required. In this case the second installment must be paid in September, 2010.

Lesson time and hours

First term
　Lessons : April 1 lesson, May 2 lessons, June 2 lessons, July 2 lessons
　Lectures : May 1 lecture, June 1 lecture, July 1 lecture

Second term
　Lessons : September 2 lessons, October 2 lessons, November 2 lessons
　Lectures : September 1 lecture, October 1 lecture, November 1 lecture

All lessons are one hour lessons, lectures are two hour lectures.

●To obtain the course completion certificate at least two thirds of both lessons and lectures must be 　taken and a final recital of between 30 and 40 minutes must be given.

● Please be aware that completion of the course does not qualify for credit at any university.
MUSASHINO ACADEMIA MUSICAE

Le Domaine Forget 2010 May 29 to June 14

Le Domaine Forget is the Crown jewel of the plethora summer masterclasses available throughout the world today; it is the meeting place of talented younger tubists and euphonium players from North America, Europe and Asia students to professionals, who are looking for a supercharged learning experience of masterclasses, private lessons and chamber music. It’s also a very enjoyable social occasion with bonding with their international colleagues.

Personally speaking it’s become a habit now, a very good habit. It started in 1954 when I was 15 years old and got on a train in Los Angeles, destination the National Music Camp, Interlochen, Michigan; I returned there for the next three years. Almost every year since that time I’ve been involved in some music camp or some masterclass stage somewhere in the world; the venue changed but the habit remained.

Many of these courses occurred for several years and the attachments grew strong, it was always a little sad when circumstances, usually economics, caused these courses to end. There was the special course in Villa Nova De Castillion near Valencia, Spain, the band camp in Kalavrita, Greece, Musica Riva in Riva del Garda, Italy and the Yamaha Band Camp in Hamamatsu, Japan, all very special occasions, which offered the special atmospheres of the unique localities, renewing old and creating new friendships and most importantly high level learning experiences.

Of all these excellent summer courses the one that stands out in my mind as being by far the best is Domaine Forget Académie de Musique et Dance in Quebec, Canada. Domaine Forget is located among the rolling hills of Saint-Irénée 90 minutes northeast of Québec City on a vast historical property overlooking the St. Lawrence River, an unparalleled setting providing visitors with a cultural experience unmatched anywhere in North America. Le Domaine Forget attracts mostly North American students but every year there are a few students that come from Europe and Asia.

The combination of fine students, very high-level internationally renowned teachers, a highly efficient and low profile administration, an unbelievably beautiful location, and at least of equal importance, it’s fun, it’s big fun. The brass classes this year are from May 31 to June 14, however, if circumstances make two weeks impossible, it is possible to come for only one week.
I have aggressively avoided posting anything that may appear like an advertisement either on my blog or rogerbobo.com so please view this as an invitation, an invitation to a very special two weeks (or one), learning guaranteed, fun guaranteed; you will be very welcome.

For more information go to the Domaine Forget web page. http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=le+domaine+forget+music+and+dance+academy+2011&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Old Timers Then and Now

Being incarcerated in this Tokyo hospital while recuperating knee surgery has given me the benefit of having time to think and reflect; mostly that’s a good thing but with this much time my thoughts have taken me to some surprising places.

Ever since I was a boy, since that time I took those first baby steps into the world of music and especially since the realm of brass playing became part of my consciousness, I have maintained an eye toward the future, which I immodestly would call vision. It was a natural thing to think that way then; brass playing was less evolved than the other instrumental families and tuba was truly at the infancy its evolution, that evolution that was destined to be unique in music history.

As I observed this evolution, which was moving at sifi velocity, I was always a little amazed to hear older players telling me; “things are not like they used to be”, “we are loosing the ‘real tuba’ sound like it was supposed to be”, or simply, “ The younger players today are loosing the magic of the ‘good old days’ ”. I was always amused by those archaic and quaint statements and the more forceful they were the more clearly I kept my eyes fixed toward the future. As surely as computers and the internet would have confused and frightened my parents if they were here today, so would the world of brass and particularly tuba have amazed and perhaps frightened those “Old Timers” many of whom, by the way, started us on our amazing evolution.

Today I still consider myself looking far more forward than to the past, perhaps that’s just the way I am but there is also a logic to the forward vista; in our short history there is very little to look back on, as tubists, it’s sad to be a conservative!

Yesterday, during this unwanted forced period of free time and while browsing the archives of my computer I ran across a recording of myself giving a masterclass at the annual symposium presented by the military bands of Washington DC; I’m sure this masterclass was at least 25 years ago and I’m also sure it’s been at least 25 years since I’ve listened to it; it wasn’t bad! I’m a little more organized now, less repetitious, I’ve added a few new points and certainly more focused but my basic message was very much the same, IE, specific ideas on phrasing, dynamics, where to breath and keeping our sights on the tuba of the future to guide our growth in a good direction.

But now I have to ask myself if I am becoming one of the “Old Timers” teaching the same old “ Eye toward the Future” stuff? I will continue thinking about that.

One thing I know for sure is that the old days in my musical life were good. And their influences on my formative musical thinking was profound. The lush sound of the Philadelphia strings, the beauty of phrasing of Marcel Tabiteau (1st oboist of the Philadelphia Symphony) and the tone coloration William Kincaid (1st flutist also of Philadelphia in the 1940s and 50s). The robust musicality of trumpeter William Vacchiano of the New York Philharmonic and unwavering power and presence of Bud Herseth in the Chicago Symphony, the poetry of the horn players Philip Fracas (Chicago) and Mason Jones (Philadelphia) when they played their personal treatments of the famous horn solos from the symphonic repertoire of the romantic period. And I will never forget when I was 14 years old and the New York Philharmonic was on tour in Los Angeles. I had just finished a lesson with William Bell. After the lesson he took me backstage before their Sunday afternoon concert. The trombone section of Gordon Pulis, Lewis van Haney and Allen Ostrander was rehearsing the choral from the last movement of Brahms 1st. They played trough it several times; it was a religious experience for me.

And probably the most impressive of all these sonic icons was Arnold Jacobs and that perfectly blended and balanced brass section of the Chicago Symphony in the 1950s. I hesitate to say this but I don’t think there has subsequently been a brass section equal that elegant, powerful and homogenious, wall of sound that Chicago had more than a half century ago. Now I’ve scared myself, clearly I’m showing a tendency to that quaint old thinking; things just ain’t what they used to be!

Instruments are getting better, repertoire is expanding and clearly players are far more virtuosic and able than the middle of the last century, but I still miss some of the sounds from my romanticized teenage sonic iconic memory. I try to stay focused on the future, that’s the only way to continue growth in this musical world but to ignore history in order to keep sight of the future would be a mistake. We are a beast with the capacity to simultaneously view the past, present and future, we need all three to be complete.

Tokyo, Nichidai Itabashi Hospital, recovering knee surgery, January 4, 2010.

http://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=92628 (The Mysterious Nameless Hornist)

ADDENDUM: Thanks to my many friends who have pointed out that the “Mysterious Nameless Hornist” is the very famous horn virtuoso Frank Lloyd; not a surprise considering the level of virtuosity displayed on this web page.

Over the last years, since I started writing articles for TubaNews, Pipers Magazine and my own blogs, I’ve talked many times about the amazing growth of the tuba both in virtuosity and repertoire. A similar growth has taken place, with the leadership of Christen Limburg, with the trombone. However, the trumpet and horn community quite simply have not evolved in that same way. Why? Both trumpet and horn are blessed with abundant repertoire and a long tradition of style. This is especially true of horn; every tuba player has encountered a little jealousy over the extraordinary repertoire of the horn, which they frequently borrow and perform as their own solo repertoire. Tubists and trombonists in the mean time have spent the passed several decades expanding their technique to accommodate the challenges of the new repertoire.

On April 29, 2007 I wrote an Article titled “Exquisite” about a CD of the same name made by Hollywood studio trumpet player Malcolm McNab, which featured Mr. McNab in a stunning performance of the Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35 by Tchaikovsky. Above and beyond the fact that this performance both technically and musically lives up to the name of the album, it raised the bar to a higher level, it presents a new level of playing that future generations will accept as normal.

Because of the extraordinary horn repertoire of truly great music, horn players, in their quests to master and preserve the tradition of this abundant repertoire, have not been motivated to move very far beyond their enviable comfort zone.

Perhaps this example of virtuoso horn playing that I encountered on U Tube yesterday http://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=92628 is a significant step in rising that proverbial bar a few notches for the horn. It’s sensational, enjoy.

November 26, 2009, Tokyo

Vintage '38

Although the following is over five years old it still seems appropriate to today. It also serves as a good prelude for some of the more personal essays I intend to write in the near future. RB

Vintage ’38

Every country one encounters seems to be inordinately bureaucratic, especially to foreigners. Having been through the process of immigration in several countries I feel safe in saying that Switzerland may be the most bureaucratic. Foreigners muse over the possibility that this constant badgering of residents holding something other than Swiss passports is representative of a latent but chronic form of xenophobia. We all sense this, sometimes we speak about it but as far as I know we’ve never taken action. Perhaps it’s just not all that bad!

I had been living in Lausanne for five years before the foreign police and the Conservatoire de Lausanne discovered I had not reported my residence; they couldn’t believe it; I must have been the first to get away with such a thing. The school had to use their lawyer to rush through a “B permit” for me so both they and I would be legal. The Conservatoire informed me that I would be held responsible for both the legal fees and the fine. That’s the last I ever heard about it, perhaps the school paid it but if so it would have been quite out of character.

Now, six years later, I have been informed that I will be given a “C permit”, which is like having Swiss citizenship in every way but the vote; this is ironic because as of one year ago I was deemed to old to continue my work in Switzerland because I was 65. I feel sure this is another kind of bureaucratic oversight but in any case I will accept the “C permit”.

When I went to the direction of the Conservatoire de Lausanne and protested this compulsory retirement they went into shock, it seemed to me that I was the first person in Swiss history to complain! “Don’t you want to rest now, don’t you want to take walks by the lake?” My visceral reaction to those questions was to reach across the desk, grab the director by the collar and say "No, I'm not tired and I have better things to do than to take walks around your lake!" I didn’t, but I was having a new concept of what was meant by “small country!”

We did find a compromise, however, in that they agreed to let me continue teaching until all the students, who were all foreign (a problem for the school) and who had come there specifically to study with me, had graduated; this would fiscally take me to August 2005, I would be 67. Actually this situation couldn’t have come at a better time, my work in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music was increasing, they like me and they want me there full time for as long as I am able and they also want as many foreigners as possible; not to mention the fact that the RNCM is a vastly superior music school compared to Lausanne. In the school year 2004-2005 I will simultaneously be nearly full time at both Manchester and Lausanne and I look forward to organizing it.

Retirement remains unthinkable to me and other than the physical demands of being a tuba soloist, I have given little thought to the aging process. However, the foreign police have required me to get an up to date photograph for the C permit document, which I did. It was in one of those automatic photograph kiosks that are found in post offices and railroad stations; I adjusted the height, smiled and saw in the screen in front of me an older man, a little less hair nearly completely gray. I would guess from the picture that I was about 65, which is what I am!

Well, so what! I rarely see myself in the mirror, I shave in the shower, I brush my hair without my glasses and my barber seems quite amused when I ask him to turn the barber chair facing the small place (square) at the corner of rue de Petit Chene and rue de Midi, so I can watch the people instead of seeing my hair being cut.

Of course, this aging process doesn’t come as a great surprise, the statistic has always been clear to me but now that I’ve seen the C permit photo the statistic has become a little clearer. I noticed even a few years ago though, that when I would walk into a restaurant or a pub with a group of my students that the eyes of the younger women inside would go to the students, not me; I didn’t like that, I wasn’t used to it. Growth hormones, cosmetic surgery and hair dye are not my thing so I guess the only thing to do is get used to it; I’m still working on it!

Seeking a female companion at my age can be frustrating and no matter how much I try and comprehend the realities, I always seem to be most attracted to women in their late twenties ---- over and over again! And indeed I have several relationships with women in that age group, all paternal and avuncular. If I keep clear that’s what it is, these are valuable and wonderful friendships. I’m grateful my work brings me into constant contact with that age group!

Women in their thirties are equally attractive but they are just enough older to begin to fear the arrival of their own aging process and a deep friendship with a man my age scares them.

In the forties, if a woman is still single or has become single, she is often soured and embittered by something in her history and with the inevitability of her biological changes; a friendship is frequently volatile.

By fifty most women are set in their ways, they can be lovely companions but, frankly, they scare me!

I recently renewed an old friendship with a girlfriend from my conservatory days, who had just had her sixtieth birthday. She was equally successful as I and very opinionated; when I was asked a question, she would answer for me ---- always, and in public places she would apply new coats of lipstick every 10 minutes. I can’t attribute these things to her age, she’s the only woman in that age group I have had a friendship with, but let’s just say she seemed to have changed through the 40 years since I had seen her and the attraction was no longer there!

Quickly, I must point out that I’m quite aware the 40 years time has also changed me ---- a little!

I’m curious why 65 has come to signify the age of retirement, who determined 65 was the age to quit work, why and when? Was it religion? Maybe it was political or maybe it was so long ago that the cultures simply realized most people would be dead by that age so it was mostly a hypothetical number. And what of the economics, what of the baby boomers who are all very close to that mysterious age now and in a few years will become eligible for the social pension payments form already over stressed systems? It will be curious to see when this time arrives if suddenly the retirement age is changed. If so, what will the result be regarding unemployment. The bottom line is clear to me, this planet is over populated, and that problem needs to be alleviated.

But how? Perhaps it’s AIDS or something even worse will cut back world population the necessary 75% or 80% needed, maybe a real all out world war III would be a good thing, or perhaps cannibalism could be the answer; I know from my years in Italy how easy anything goes down with a little garlic and a little extra virgin olive oil. Or consider this; maybe the North American Indians were right; When a person has nothing more to offer, it’s time to take him or her to the top of a mountain, make a comfortable place, say goodbye and leave him or her there to catch the next spaceship to the happy hunting ground. Maybe they had it right hundreds of years ago. Anyway, something has to be done!

Personally, I hope I can continue teaching for the next 35 years, 100 seems like a rounder number than 65. Equally, I hope when I start to deteriorate I will recognize it or, if not, that some trusted friend would tell me.

I like very much the vintage wine analogy; no one knows the cellar life of a wine for sure, some reach maturity quickly and some become better and better.

In 1979 I gave a masterclass in Moudon, Switzerland. One of the students (now the tubist of l’Orchest de la Swiss Romand in Geneva) was from the very small town of Feshy. After the last day he invited all the class to his farm in the country; there were 12 or 15 of us. Tables were set up in the cross roads of the village. We ate and drank and it was clearly an exceptional evening. Soon we began to play tuba ensemble music in this isolated rural crossroads. Across the street was another party and the host of that party was also a musician. (Everyone in that part of Switzerland had some connection with the band community).

Soon the two parties converged and very soon the padrone of the party across the street invited us to visit his wine cellar. Shortly, it became clear that this gentleman, whom I was very sure he was about my age, was not only an inhabitant of Feshy but a principal wine merchant of the region, perhaps the principle wine merchant of the region and to this day I can’t remember whether he had twenty 40,000 liter casks of wine or forty 20,000 liter casks. In any case he had more wine than I had ever encountered, and he quickly began to encourage us to sample all of it! Soon he suggested, instead of the 1979 vintage, that we sample the 1978, and then the 77. It was an education and a religious experience. We were moving backward through time and I was amazed how different the wine was form year to year. We went through the 70’s, into the sixties when he began asking birth dates from my students. Upon hearing the birth years he would disappear for a short period and reappear with a bottle of vintage Fechy from that year. He went through the whole class and finally asked if there was anybody else and looked at me with a fraternal smile.

“Well, my birth date is 1938” I said.

“Oh, that’s my birth date too” he said.

He left for a long time and we all began to think the party had come to an end when he arrived back with a crusty old bottle with a big 38 rubber stamped on it like the rubber stamps we used in grammar school when I was a boy. He opened it, poured it and it was both a great wine and a religious experience. I hope to find him again someday and remember that evening together.

There was another time I tasted a vintage from 1938. For my 60th birthday present, my good friend and manager Emily Harris gave me a bottle of 1938 port. It was magnificent.

It’s difficult to realistically assess ones own aging process but I’m convinced vintage 38 was a great year.

Fiesole, Italy, March 2004

2010, a Year of Competitions

A long time ago, during my first year with the Rochester Philharmonic and my freshman year at the Eastman School of music, a poster appeared on the Eastman bulletin board announcing a trumpet competition in Geneva, Switzerland. How this ambitious young player wished there would be a tuba competition. One year later at the same time of year on the same bulletin board an announcement for an international horn competition in Geneva was posted, and the following year there arrived an announcement for a trombone competition, which, by now I had learned was the prestigious Geneva International Competition. The logic of what would appear the following year kept me excited, I waited the whole year and when I saw that same Geneva Competition poster on the bulletin board, I ran to see what the repertoire for the tuba competition would be; it was an announcement for another trumpet competition!

The explanation is easy; in most of the world the tuba wasn’t considered a solo instrument at that time. I’ve subsequently addressed the incredible growth of our instrument many times, now it’s time to address the present and the abundance of the copious competitions available for tuba.

Today we have the Markneukirchen, Germany Competition, the International Competition of the City of Porcia, Italy, the Geneva International Music Competition, the ITEC (International Tuba and Euphonium Congress) competition, the Brno (Check Republic) International Festival Competition, the Jeju (Korea) International Brass Competition and the Guebweller (France) International Competition, just to mention a few of the many competitions that are available today.

These and many others are serious competitions that offer substantial cash rewards but perhaps more importantly, they expose the winners to international acclaim that can give inertia to a very successful career. There was a period when some of the frequent competition winners, I.e., Carol Jantsch and Roland Szentpali, considered the several cash prizes they won as part of their principal income.

There is, however, much more to these competitions than just the prestige and the cash prizes. These competitions are actually a musical version of the Olympics, the greatest athletes, or in our case musicians and specifically tubists, meet and compete to see who is the best. Competition is a good thing; it gives us the motivation to be our best. Speaking personally, I cannot imagine what my level of accomplishment would have been without the more that fifty years influence of my deep friendship and competition with Tommy Johnson. We talked about it many times and agreed that our long association motivated us to reach far higher levels than we would have without the other’s influence.

Like Olympic competitions, these “Olympics for musicians” these “world championships” that are held throughout the globe, have a deep effect on the way in which we view the growth of our art. Like the Olympics, we begin to view ourselves from the specter of how we envision world-class excellence, and as simple as it sounds, we get better.

And like the Olympics, not everybody will take home a gold metal when the competitions are over, like the Olympics, some will go home disappointed. Everyone, however, will return home enriched and with a greater view of the real state of the art, our art.

2010 is an abundant year of many such competitions; they will be available to whoever is interested in Europe, North America and Asia as a participant or a listener.

Good luck and enjoy.

Tokyo, Japan, October 19, 2009

Is it a Woman's Brass World?

Women have been active in the brass instrument world since the time I first started playing (a long time ago). But the frequency that they appear today definitely shows an enormous increase. Two days ago it was my pleasure to listen to exactly 50 freshman brass students play their exams at the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo. Very early in the day it became apparent that a huge majority of these students were women; in fact, it was exactly 75% women and it was true of all the instruments; trumpet, horn, trombone, basstrombone, euphonium and tuba, plus in one of these instrument groups it was abundantly clear that nine women of the twelve players were hugely superior to the three men. (Perhaps that’s another discussion.)

Why this huge shift in the man woman ratio? Here in Japan many believe that because of the intense competitive circumstances of music performance as a profession, men are simply more attracted to venture into different fields where employment offers much greater chances for a secure income. Women, however, at least Japanese women, seem to show contentment moving into music related fields such as teaching. Many fine Japanese women brass players are happily living in their home towns teaching children; this is a good thing, it starts young players out at a very high level and therefore influences the rapidly growing level of brass playing throughout the whole country, which is strikingly impressive.

It’s interesting to point out that a similar situation existed in the middle of the last century in the United States. Many men considered a career in one of the military bands as a poor alternative to successfully playing professionally as a civilian, now a position in one of these bands is considered prestigious and secure.

In that same period of the last century women brass players correctly saw themselves as a minority group and as a minority group many organizations began to appear with the intension of correcting the prejudice that clearly existed toward women. Many, most, symphony orchestras throughout the world simply didn’t allow women as well as the military bands and throughout general musical work place. Most notable among these organizations was the International Woman’s Brass Congress, which met once every year and impressively demonstrated that women were by no means less good brass players than men.

Similarly, many extremely good women’s brass groups began to immerge into the musical world and many of them, taking advantage of their femininity, cleverly and successfully marketed themselves; this is not a bad thing, as well as creating a market, they proved again that women are at least equal to men. Although today the situation for woman brass players has largely corrected itself the International Woman’s Brass Congress is still visible and active and enjoys a high level of respect from the entire world brass community.

But there is another aspect to this discourse; there are differences between women and men. That beast that we homo sapiens once were certainly still exists in our DNA and in our basic characters. The males of the species were the hunters and warriors while the females were the domestics, the bearers of children and the nurturers of the communities; those differences still live within us. Personally speaking, as a young player I could definitely feel a difference in the atmosphere when a woman or women began to appear in the brass section and for the most part it was a clearly positive difference, and that same difference is still evident for me when even one woman is in a class.

This difference is more difficult to explain. Music encompasses many polarities, aggressive and passive, happy and sad, visceral and intellectual, and of course, masculine and feminine; it seems to me those polarities are more easily realized when the collective music making is made up of both genders.

I consider myself a clear thinking modern man with no gender prejudices, our musical community is a better place when it is made up of both men and women, but as a small codetta to this article, I have to admit to one flaw in my social evolution; I found it very difficult to feel at ease when my orchestra had a female conductor. It was a new thing then, and I left orchestra life before it became popular; I’m sure, will, I hope, I would have adjusted. I am completely sure that the modern symphony musician will have to be comfortable with women conductors.

September 18, 2009, Tokyo, Japan.