"Elegance and Romance from Virginia" tour of Japan

Amy and I just returned from a fabulous week in Japan, where we performed
with our good friends and colleagues, pianist Judy Clark, and the "Clasic Strings Duo"
of brothers Kevin and Bryan Matheson (violin and viola, respectively).

Here are some pictures from our rehearsals in Yamaha Hall - an acoustically
vibrant space we all found to be one of the nicest concert halls in which
we've performed.

Before our concert at Yamaha, we performed for appreciate guests at the Hotel Chinzan-so Tokyo. Performing for three nights in "Il Teatro" gave new meaning to "singing for your supper!" Our generous sponsor and patron (not to mention translator and guide extraordinaire!), Tomoko Gillespie, is between Judy and Amy below:



We performed a varied program of favorite operatic and musical theatre arias and duets from La Bohéme, Tosca, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, The King and I, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and among others, Brigadoon. We didn't know how well we'd be received by an audience we'd been told might be more reserved, less demonstrative and less familiar with opera than what we've come to expect. We prepared one encore, performed two, and could have offered a third! Here we are with the emcee of our concert, a Japanese soprano who translated for the audience.

Not only was mini-Beethoven-san a hit, but the Matheson brothers were swarmed by young violinists who wanted their music autographed!

Following the Yamaha Hall Recital on November 5, we sang another program at Christ Church in Yokohama. The expat and local community was again demonstratively supportive, and we were grateful and proud to represent our community in another vibrant center of the Land of the Rising Sun. We had one day off before our return yesterday (Nov 8), and we visited the fabled city of shrines, Kyoto.