Message from Executive Director

Memoire of the Ishibashi Memorial Hall, and its future.

When I was asked to write for the Farewell Concert of the former Ishibashi Memorial Hall, of which history was brought down the curtain after 33 years on 24th September 2007, I wrote:

Music is a recollection of sound. So could a concert hall be 'music' itself. If so, this Ishibashi Memorial Hall, which is just about to close, will persist in us as a bright reminiscence of music. ........ Those big hall (Ishibashi Memorial Hall) and small one (Aeolian Hall) certainly are assured their future and will promise us another exciting memoire.

Having witnessed the former hall for 33 years, I have the numerous musical recollections which are deeply sealed in my heart: King's College Choir of Cambridge University, Trinity College Choir of Cambridge University, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Wien Concentus Musicus, The Consort of Musicke, Gustav Leonhardt, Jorg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda, Hans Kann, Bruno Canino, Toyoaki Matsuura, Toshiya Eto, and The Evening of Noh and Kyogen.... I shall stop now before I go too far.

What I wanted to mean with the quotation above was the fact that the old Ishibashi Memorial Hall will revive the new generation with a great reminiscence of sound even if the concert hall itself may not have been physically existed anymore. Now the time has come and our brand new hall opens in May 2010.

Prior to our official opening in May 2010, we held a small concert to celebrate the compilation of construction - the very first moment to make 'a musical sound' as if we breathed life into the hall. From out of the infinite silence a rich assortment of sounds echoed throughout the hall. Their indescribable effect was wonderful beyond one's expectations. That sound was so sensational. It led me to a peculiar sense: my pathos for the old hall melt into an hommage for the new concert hall. That moment my assumption that the moemorie is a bath to the future turned into a certainity.

It was because of my great affection towards music and this Ishibashi Memorial Hall, which made me determined to accept this heavily-responsible position of Executive Director. The hall is a promising educational resource for Ueno Gakuen Junior High School and High School, Junior College and University, along with for all youngsters invloved with music. It also will be another cetre of music culture both regionally and globaly, as well as where we as the concert hall can engage with local communities. We, moreover, concentrate on our original projects.

Finally but not least, I would like to express my sincere respects and gratitude for many of those who have helped enact to complete constructing the new Ishibashi Memorial Hall.

Ishibashi Memorial Hall, Ueno Gakuen
Executive Director
Nobuko Funayama