yokosuka symphony orchestra

60 Years of the Yokosuka Symphony Orchestra

A look back at our history.

1956: The Orchestra Is Born

In the summer of 1956, a small orchestra was born in Yokosuka. A group of volunteers, driven by a passion they could not hold back, gathered with their instruments. Too poor to buy printed music, they stayed up all night copying parts by hand, and when they finally brought to life the Mozart they had played on records until the grooves wore thin, the Shonan Symphony Orchestra, forerunner of the Yokosuka Symphony Orchestra, was born.

Yokosuka was then a base town crowded with foreign troops on leave from the Korean War, but ordinary citizens were still struggling to climb out of postwar poverty, hungry in body and spirit. There was virtually no place in society for an amateur Western-music group. A handful of young people who had fallen under music's spell came together anyway, with barely ten players and little understanding from those around them.

Still short of players and instruments, we borrowed help from like-minded friends in neighboring areas and, stretching ourselves to the limit, held our debut concert on November 25, 1956, in the gymnasium of Yokosuka Gakuin. We regard this day as our founding date. The program essay that day, "Bitten by the Music Bug," apologized for presuming to give a concert after only three months, and asked the audience to forgive us for the sake of "our players, who seem to live on music and dreams alone."

"Our performance that day must surely have been a poor one, but it was the sum of everything we had," recalls Permanent President Toshio Nemoto. "The warm hearts of the audience who watched over us became a great signpost for who we are today. That night I was so overwhelmed that I wandered the streets of Yokosuka alone until dawn."

1957–1959: Joining Hands with Neighboring Orchestras

In August 1957, a year after our founding, we joined the more senior Yokohama Symphony Orchestra and Kawasaki Civic Symphony Orchestra for the 1st Joint Concert of the Three Cities' Symphony Orchestras at Kawasaki Civic Hall, where we played Bizet's Carmen Suite No. 1. The groups began lending one another players and large instruments, and as orchestras formed in Odawara, Fujisawa and Kamakura, the event grew into a six-orchestra touring series centered on the Kanagawa Prefectural Music Hall, where we also appeared at its 1st festival in November 1959.

Finding a rehearsal space was never easy: after Yokosuka Gakuin's music room came a long period of wandering between a kindergarten, a bank and a factory warehouse. Our venue, Yokosuka Civic Hall, was far from ideal, yet audiences filled it every time, and we kept growing up to the 11th Regular Concert.

1965: A New Name

About six years after our founding, members' opinions began to diverge, and as new orchestras appeared in the Shonan area some of our players drifted away. We came close to dissolving, but thanks to the core founding members we pulled through. In April 1965, at our 12th Regular Concert, we made a fresh start as the Yokosuka Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of the people of Yokosuka, a concert as moving for us as our very first.

1965–1967: A New Hall and the City Song

In 1965 the Yokosuka City Culture Hall opened, and we played at its 1st Civic Festival, "An Evening of Music." In February 1967 we took part in recording and premiering the Yokosuka City Song, composed by Ikuma Dan to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Yokosuka's incorporation as a city, a sign that the city now recognized us, and it began actively supporting our work.

1971: Our 15th Anniversary

In October 1971 we celebrated our 15th anniversary at the 30th Regular Concert, publishing a short history of our first 15 years in the program and performing Brahms's joyful, vibrant Symphony No. 2 for the first time.

1972: Coming-of-Age Concerts

From January 1972 until 2006, we played light-music programs at the Coming-of-Age Celebration Concert, showing young people that orchestras play more than classics.

1975: Farewell to Hideo Nemoto, and Our First Ninth

Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, then one of the hardest works an amateur orchestra could attempt, had been our goal since our founding, and we planned to perform it at the end of 1975. Then tragic news arrived: Hideo Nemoto, our concertmaster and resident conductor since the beginning, had died in the winter mountains.

In April our 35th Regular Concert, which he was to have conducted, became his memorial, with Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung added in his memory. In December, at the 37th Regular Concert, we carried on his wishes with our first Ninth, and many of us wept as the third movement began.

1976: Our 20th Anniversary

In November 1976 we reached our 20th anniversary with the 39th Regular Concert. We named the late Hideo Nemoto our Permanent Conductor and Ikuma Dan our Honorary Conductor. Mayor Kazuo Yokoyama gave a congratulatory address and conducted the city song, we published the commemorative booklet "Kokyo (Symphony)," and Ikuma Dan himself conducted the orchestral premiere of his Grand March "Celebration," originally for wind band and arranged especially for the day. Twenty years marks adulthood, and we entered a new phase holding ourselves to stricter standards.

1980: Rehearsing at Tokiwa Junior High

Rehearsal space remained a constant challenge. After years of wandering, we had settled for a while at the city library, but in November 1980 renovation forced us out. With much help we moved to the gymnasium of Tokiwa Junior High School, and to thank the school we gave music classes for its students.

The seaside gym had no heating or cooling: blankets and hand warmers in winter, insect repellent in summer. Worst of all was rain, which drummed so loudly on the thin dome roof that we could not hear one another and had to stop until it passed.

1981: The Ninth Joins the Civic Theatre Series

We also held music classes at schools around the city and helped found the Yokosuka Music Association. After our first Ninth in 1975, we performed it at the 41st, 46th and 49th Regular Concerts (1977, 1979, 1980), but organizing a chorus and four soloists ourselves became difficult. From December 1981 the Culture Hall presented it in its Civic Theatre series, almost every year until 1994; since then it has been part of the Yokosuka Arts Theatre Chorus concerts. We still play it with all our hearts.

1978–1983: Unusual Stages

Beyond our annual concerts, we took on many unusual performances: Handel's complete Messiah with the National Defense Academy Glee Club in 1978; a 1981 recording of incidental music ("Ryokan") conducted by its composer, Tetsusaburo Hirai; a pops concert on the U.S. Navy base during the 1982 Cherry Blossom Festival, made possible by a member serving in the U.S. Navy; and in 1983, the complete ballet Swan Lake at the Citizens' Festival, full of new discoveries.

1983: Premiere of Suite "Yokosuka"

In February 1983 we premiered Suite "Yokosuka" for chorus and orchestra, commissioned from Ikuma Dan for the city's 75th anniversary. Komaki Kurihara, daughter of lyricist Kazuto Kurihara, recited the text, and Maestro Dan conducted. A recording session followed the concert before a packed hall and ran late into the night. The suite has been performed every spring since, more than 30 times, and we hope it will continue for centuries.

1984–1986: Making Classical Music Fun

After appearing at the 1st Yokosuka Music Festival in 1984, we launched the "Enjoy the Orchestra Ten Times More" concerts in February 1986 for newcomers to classical music. Hosts such as Mari Christine and kodan storyteller Murasaki Kanda chatted with Toshio Nemoto, with themes from emotions in music to jazz big band and Carmen told as kodan.

1987: Our 30th Anniversary

In May 1987 we celebrated our 30th anniversary at the 61st Regular Concert, with Ikuma Dan and our three resident conductors taking turns on the podium. Former members came from across Japan and even abroad, the audience exceeded the hall's capacity by nearly 300, and we distributed the booklet "We Just Wanted to Make Music." That year the City of Yokosuka also honored our cultural activities.

1987: Kanagawa Kenmin Concert '87

In August 1987 we appeared at "Kanagawa Kenmin Concert '87" at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, devoted to the music of Ikuma Dan. The Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra played his orchestral works and a symphony in the first half; in the second, we and Yokosuka choirs performed Suite "Yokosuka" under the composer's baton.

A newspaper review noted that at this rare joint program of professionals and amateurs, it was the amateurs who left the deeper impression, playing the suite they had premiered "with affection, ardor and pride," like high school ballplayers under the blazing sun. Humbled, we resolved to hold ourselves to an even higher standard.

1988: Our Debut at Tokyo Station

In July 1988 we performed outside Kanagawa Prefecture for the first time, at the 50th "Tokyo Eki-Con," a popular concert series held at Tokyo Station that brought music out of the concert hall and into everyday life. We were the first amateur orchestra in Japan to appear. Our program of ballet, waltzes, opera and popular music drew thunderous applause from a packed crowd.

1989–1992: Taking On the Great Symphonies

After our 30th anniversary we began tackling large, demanding works: Shostakovich's Fifth in 1989 (66th Regular Concert), Mahler's "Titan" in 1990 (68th), Pictures at an Exhibition for our 35th anniversary in 1991 (70th), and Bruckner's Fourth in 1992 (72nd). A growing membership and talented young players made this possible. Many members also love returning to the Classical and early Romantic repertoire, and we strive to balance both while listening to our audience's wishes.

1991: The Kanagawa Culture Award

In November 1991, thanks to your long support, we received the 40th Kanagawa Culture Award. The citation praised us for keeping "the lamp of culture burning" through the hard postwar decades, when Yokosuka had lost its very foundations. Nothing had ever made us happier, and the honor also reminded us of our responsibility to society.

1993: A Rehearsal Home at Last

In May 1993 we began rehearsing in the music room of the new Yokosuka General Welfare Center in Shioiri. With a grand piano always on hand and full heating and air-conditioning, it was a dream come true, and no more rehearsals lost to rainstorms. Permanent President Toshio Nemoto, who had struggled to find rehearsal space since our founding, said with deep emotion, "At last, our dream has come true."

1993: Opening the Yokosuka Arts Theatre

In November 1993 Yokosuka gained the Yokosuka Arts Theatre, a hall the whole nation could be proud of. At its opening ceremony we played Suite "Yokosuka," and the superb acoustics left audience and players alike breathless. Its opera-house-standard orchestra pit impressed us just as much.

Our move from the Civic Hall to the Culture Hall, and then to the Arts Theatre, mirrors a city that increasingly seeks and embraces culture beyond what anyone imagined in 1956. We are truly glad to have devoted ourselves to music.

1994: The First Kanagawa Amateur Festival Orchestra

Kanagawa's amateur orchestras had held joint concerts since 1957. In August 1994 they took a new form: a Festival Orchestra drawn from twelve groups. At the first concert, at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, we performed Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" with narrator Edoya Koneko (now Edoya Nekohachi IV). Meeting other orchestras helped us rediscover our own strengths.

1994–1996: Chamber Music and Our 40th Anniversary

In November 1994, at Music Director Masaki Ishino's suggestion, we launched Chamber Music Concerts (held through 2000). A favorite was Solisten Gründer, a Viennese Schrammel-style quartet led by Permanent President Toshio Nemoto.

In October 1996 our 80th Regular Concert celebrated our 40th anniversary. Ikuma Dan and our three resident conductors led his "Festive Piece," the Meistersinger Prelude and the "New World" Symphony. Many former members joined the reception, and we resolved to press on toward our 50th.

1998: Our First Casual Concert

"Plenty of orchestras play symphonies well. Let's make music only Yokosuka can make!" With this motto, Toshio Nemoto and Masaki Ishino launched the Casual Concert in December 1998, featuring waltzes, polkas and other light pieces. Now held in January, like a New Year's concert, it has grown every year into one of our signatures.

2000: DAN YEAR 2000 in Yokosuka

DAN YEAR 2000 was a nationwide celebration of Ikuma Dan's music, held from June 2000 to March 2001 in cities from Asahikawa to Kurume. At its Yokosuka concert in July 2000, conducted by Dan and Music Director Masaki Ishino, we played his Symphony No. 1, "Saikai Sanka" (Hymn to Saikai) and Suite "Yokosuka." Members of the Sasebo Citizens' Chorus traveled all the way from Sasebo, the city "Saikai Sanka" celebrates, to fill the hall with their voices.

2001: Farewell to Ikuma Dan

In May 2001, two days before our 89th Regular Concert, news came that Ikuma Dan, our longtime Honorary Conductor and revered mentor, had died while traveling in China. We had planned to add his Grand March "Celebration" to mark the inauguration of Prime Minister Koizumi, a Yokosuka native.

Unable to play a festive piece in our grief, we replaced it with "Hana no Machi" (Town of Flowers). We displayed his photograph in the lobby, and as we played the piece just a little slower than he had once taught us, a quiet stillness filled the hall. After the concert we named him Permanent Honorary Conductor.

2006: Our 50th Anniversary Gala

In October 2006 we marked our 50th anniversary with the 100th Regular Concert, a "50th Anniversary Gala Concert." The first half looked back on our history, with stories introducing Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, played at our 1st Regular Concert; the Piano Concerto "Yellow River," whose Japanese premiere we gave; and Ikuma Dan's Grand March "Celebration," his gift to us. The second half, devoted to our present and future, featured waltzes, opera pieces and Stravinsky's "Firebird" Suite.

A reception and an exhibition on our 50-year history followed at a nearby hotel, where members who had served since our founding were thanked. Many have come and gone over half a century, but our passion for music has passed from heart to heart, and we are determined to keep its flame burning for the next 100 years and beyond.

2005 Onward: The Ninth with Professional Conductors

Our performances of Beethoven's Ninth, given almost every year since 1975, entered a new phase in December 2005 with professional conductors on the podium: Yukio Kitahara (2005, 2010), Kazuyoshi Akiyama (2006, 2009, 2013), Shigeo Genda (2008), Hubert Soudant (2011), Naoto Otomo (2012) and Akiyoshi Sako (2015).

Their passionate guidance taught us anew the joy of engaging sincerely with music. Working with Dutch-born Hubert Soudant, our first great maestro from overseas, was especially memorable: across the language barrier, he revealed to us the essence of Beethoven, and we found new discoveries in music we thought we knew. We also learned that the wish to move an audience knows no boundaries.

2008: Our First Full Opera

In March 2008 we finally performed a complete opera: Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, staged as a Regular Concert of the Yokosuka Arts Theatre Chorus. Conductor Yukio Kitahara, a veteran of German opera houses, and the répétiteur were demanding, and we rallied in response, gathering at members' homes late into the night to correct our parts and review the passages they had flagged.

Playing in the pit was a new challenge. Unable to see the stage or sense the singers' breathing, we relied on the baton alone, and timing and balance were hard at first. But with each rehearsal our sound grew more Italian and the maestro's expression softened. When the final bars died away, cries of "Bravo!" and a storm of applause repaid all our efforts.

2010: American Sound in Yokosuka

In September 2010 we joined our neighbors, the U.S. Seventh Fleet Band, for American Sound in Yokosuka. The concert had featured the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra until 2009, but with President Obama's inauguration prompting a change, our local amateur orchestra was chosen. Kazuyoshi Akiyama, the band's bandmaster and Music Director Masaki Ishino shared the podium, and Yokosuka-born broadcaster Hidetake Takashima hosted.

The band's sheer power at our first joint rehearsal overwhelmed us. Many of its members had studied classical music, and from 2012 some began playing with us in their scarce free time, despite giving more than 200 performances a year. They return home after their tours of duty, but their skill and commitment remind us that music knows no borders.

2014: Farewell to President Nemoto

Toshio Nemoto, a founder, double bassist and our President for some forty years, died on January 10, 2014, at 82. At the last rehearsal of the year on December 28 he had cheerfully wished everyone a happy New Year, but he collapsed two days later and never recovered. At his wake, members gathered around his coffin and, in tears, played the music he loved.

Under new leadership centered on Secretary General Shigeru Ueda, our 115th Regular Concert that July honored his memory with Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung, as at the memorial for his elder brother, Permanent Conductor Hideo Nemoto. That July Ueda became President, and we named Toshio Nemoto Permanent President.

2016: Our 60th Anniversary

In October 2016 we celebrated our 60th anniversary with the 120th Regular Concert. We owe this entirely to all of you who have supported us so warmly. We still face many challenges, but we see this milestone as a new starting point toward our 70th anniversary. Begun by people who "just wanted to make music," the Yokosuka Symphony Orchestra will carry on the legacy of Hideo and Toshio Nemoto.

What began as chamber music, played simply for the love of it, has grown over sixty years into a full orchestra that should now think of itself as a mature adult. In Europe, music has been part of everyday life for centuries, and we would not presume to compare our modest activities with that long tradition. Yet the time for merely imitating great European performances is over: we must have the courage to trust our own sensibilities and interpretation, and build the foundation to do so. We hope this will become our distinctive character and enrich our community's culture. With the support of citizens, the city and many generous companies, we will keep striving toward an orchestra built by all of them together.

Finally, we close with the master singer Hans Sachs's advice to the young knight Walther in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg:

When summer, autumn and winter come around,
amid many cares and pains,
whoever can still sing a beautiful song
is truly worthy to be called a master singer.

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