KYOTO–A young community band leader from Borneo nervously accepted the baton from the music maestro at a high school here.
Jesmond Siew had just watched the maestro, Yoshihisa Fujishige, repeatedly halt performances and put members of the Kyoto Ryoyo High School Wind Band on the spot to explain what went wrong.
Fujishige then instructed a tense Siew, who was visiting the school on Jan. 7 as part of a musical culture exchange program, to lead the next number, a Disney song.
“Nice,” Fujishige said when the performance was over. “You were wielding the baton so elegantly, and the look on your face was also fine.”
But he added, “Preparatory movements are so important when you are assigning strong and weak stresses.”
The instructions and even criticisms were exactly what Siew was looking for.
Siew, president of Band Lab, a nongovernmental organization based in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island, came to Kyoto specifically to learn about wind instruments.
And he wanted the lessons to be taught by Fujishige, whom he had seen in videos mainly on social media.
Band Lab’s activities include operating a community band and teaching children how to play musical instruments.
But there are few wind bands, let alone wind band leaders, in Malaysia, where musical instruments deteriorate easily in the heat and humidity.
Later that day, Fujishige instructed Siew for about two hours on what a band leader should keep in mind.
“You should clarify the problem on a part-by-part basis whenever you cannot get things done properly with your baton alone,” the director told him. “You should also give some advice to every single player.”
When Fujishige asked the Kyoto music students to identify their errors, one club member replied, “The timing of the sounds was off as early as the initial beat.”
Another said, “I think there should be a more tangible beat.”
Fujishige’s conducting and coaching methods are simple but effective, Siew said, adding that he looked forward to trying them out in Malaysia.
Siew’s visit was part of a reciprocal exchange program inspired by an event last September, when members of the Aikodai Meiden High School Symphonic Band, a wind band in Aichi Prefecture, were invited to Borneo.
Other members of Band Lab joined Siew in a performance at a regular concert of the Aikodai Meiden High School band on Jan. 11.
Siew said wind players in Sarawak changed their attitude after witnessing the high technical prowess of the Japanese high school students.
Sarawak wind players have developed a desire to learn whatever they can from the wind band culture of Japan, which is a golden opportunity for their growth, Siew said.
AloJapan.com