I scrambled through the 24 Arias for Men book with my dad to find something that worked best for my voice. My audition was in a week, and I needed my song to be perfect, since I knew my sight reading wouldn’t be. The day came rolling, and they called my name. I knew I’d get in, but I was freaking out on the inside. I had the opportunity to sing with Joe Hisaishi (a.k.a. his birth name, Mamoru Fujisawa), the composer for the music from Studio Ghibli movies and one of my greatest musical influences, at his North American concert debut. But for now, let’s take a few steps back and see how it all started. Also, while this happened the same weekend as Fanime con, I’ll be writing about that in a separate post. If any ideas aren’t fleshed out about the convention, you’ll see them in that post.

The Audition

My friend David from Ocabanda messaged me mentioning he may be in San Jose during Memorial Day Weekend. I asked him if he was going to Fanime, he said no and that he was planning to come to a concert – Joe Hisaishi Live. He sent me the Facebook event, and I saw that there was an option to audition to sing in the choir for Symphony Silicon Valley. I thought I was probably too late, but checked out the link anyway.

Turns out, I was good to go and had plenty of time to schedule my audition, and after a couple technical issues I had it planned for the end of April. I sang Vittoria Mio Core, a male standard Italian Aria. Despite totally fumbling on my sight reading (I have a hard time with that without context to listen for), I was let in on the spot. Totally ecstatic, I shared the news with my friends and prepped for rehearsal 2 weeks later.

Rehearsal

We had 4 rehearsals to learn the music – over 40 pages worth. Given that. we went as fast as lightning through the music and somehow got it all ready. Before the 4th rehearsal, we received an email that Joe Hisaishi may be coming to observe that Tuesday night, which needless to say left us all starstruck and excited beyond words. After reading that email, I wrote him a letter of gratitude to thank him for his music among other things. Sadly, he decided not to come observe, as it was the same day that he flew in from Japan. However, the idea that he’s real and that we could… meet him remained.

The next night, we met at the concert venue, reviewed some troublesome spots, and mid-way, we saw him walking in. The maestro Joe Hisaishi walked in with his daughter and two assistants, introduced himself, then stepped up to conduct us.

SWEET BABY JESUS, HE IS REAL!

He gave clear and concise directions, communicated them kindly and calmly, and got us to be exactly how he wanted in just an hour. We had a break, then rehearsed with him once more with the orchestra added. Hearing all the music with full instrumentation got me tearing up. I have such a deep connection with many of these songs – about a third of Ocabanda‘s repertoire consists of Ghibli music – so hearing them in a full orchestral setting brings back some great memories. The rehearsal went fantastically, and we left for the night. I did not, however have the chance to give him the letter.

Yet…

Meeting the Man – Thursday

On Thursday night, after some small surprise musical changes in our scores, we did a (almost) full run of the concert. We opened the next day, so we better be able to do a full run by then. It went great, and during our break in the middle, I decided to try and find an opportunity to present my letter to him.

I went to my backpack, got the letter, put it in my binder of music, and tried to figure out how best to approach it. I saw that Joe was busy with some orchestra people and I didn’t want to disturb him, so I thought it might not be best to do it then. Next, I looked around to see if there was anyone affiliated with him who could give him the letter for me, since I my main goal was just to get it delivered. I saw his daughter Mai sitting in the audience, so in Japanese I asked her if she could give him the letter for me. Whether it was my poor Japanese saying “Can I give him the letter” or pure dumb luck, she told me to wait until after rehearsal and give it to him myself.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

We finished up rehearsing around 9:30, and as quickly as I could, I went to find Joe. I saw him going up to the Authorized Personnel Only area with his personal quarters. Dismayed, I waited hoping that he’d come back down. While I was waiting, my friend from the choir Ken stopped by and asked what I was doing. I told him how I was planning to give a letter to the maestro. Ken is a Japanese teacher, so he asked if I needed any help translating. I told him it was too late for my letter, but if I were to meet Joe personally, he’d be a big help. So, Ken waited with me.

A few minutes pass, and Mai and Hisaishi’s assistants walk by to go up. Mai acknowledges me, and about a minute after they head up, one of the assistants calls Ken and I up. We were absolutely giddy with excitement but did our best to keep it under control. Mai asks us to wait in the hallway, then went to her father’s room and called him out. We told him, “Good work at rehearsal!” and I presented the letter to him with Ken helping make my Japanese sound more formal. After a short conversation, I ask for a picture, Ken hands Mai his phone, and she took a couple shots of the two of us with Joe himself.

Walking back to our cars, Ken and I were totally amazed and awestruck from what just happened. We were the only two from the choir (who weren’t on staff) to have met with Hisaishi personally, and probably the only ones at all to have taken a picture with him. He thanked me for being his way in, and I thanked him for helping translate, and we then proceeded to gloat on social media. Hisaishi is comparable to John Williams when it comes to music, so meeting him was definitely a moment to remember (and brag about).

The next evening, at rehearsal before opening night, Ken and I mentioned to other chorale members what we did the night before, and to say they were jealous would be an understatement. However, meeting him was never the plan, and we more or less Forrest Gumped ourselves into that situation. I had the idea to write a letter in the first place from The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, where Tim mentions that famous people and high performers will appreciate much more a well thought-out item you can give them to look at later than a verbal assault for attention or an autograph. I’m guessing Mai bothered to help us see him at all because she saw that I was doing what I could to respect his time. Meeting him was easily the highlight of the whole experience, but our performances were just as exciting.

Opening Night – Friday

We had our final rehearsal that evening and worked with a marching band for one of the movies’ medleys we were singing. That went efficiently, and the choir went on a long break for pizza. Ken, another singer named Ryan, and I wanted to leave to check out Fanime. We were not allowed to leave the theater, so we settled with exploring the inside of the (gigantic) Performing Arts Center.

The choir room was downstairs, but we went upstairs. We found a door to the lobby, made friends with the head usher, found a much larger bathroom than the one we had been using, and at the top found a door marked Do Not Enter. We went back down, and a few minutes later the pizza arrived. I had one too many slices of pesto, and shortly thereafter, we met back to focus, and went on stage.

The crowd sitting out there was huge. The theater has a 3000 seat capacity, and there were no empty seats by the time we started. In the audience was one of my friends from school and some Youtubers (The Dex) I follow who were guests of honor at Fanime.

The room filled up, and Joe stepped on stage.

The crowd went absolutely nuts when he appeared, and once they quieted down, he raised his baton, starting the medley for Nausicaa.

With selections from many Studio Ghibli films including Princess Mononoke, Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro, the concert was full of wonderful, nostalgic music. I can’t say everything we did, but we had multiple standing ovations from the amazing audience, which filled us with joy and excitement for our next performances over the rest of the weekend. I even had some friends in the audience – not for me of course, but it was a nice coincidence. They even snapped a picture of me on the big screen!

Performance #2 – Saturday

Before our second performance, we had a couple musical changes for small parts, rehearsed a few other areas, and worked with Mai to fix some more places personally selected by her father.

After experiencing the thrill of opening night, we all were ready to get out there and sing again, and sing we did. Saturday night was a big improvement musically and logistically over Friday, as Friday was the first non-stop run of the music. Transitions between songs were faster, there were nearly no wrong notes, and the biggest difference was bows. Joe gave every soloist and section a chance for recognition after the finale, and after the encores, he shook as many people’s hands as he could and air-shook people he couldn’t reach. It was a nice touch for the performers to feel personally appreciated by the man himself.

We were equally as energized after this concert as we were on Friday, and it set a good precedent for the last performances! I again had friends in the audience, including one of my best friends, my Japanese professor, and a music friend I met at MAGfest hotel room jam, so it was really nice to hear from them all afterward. I didn’t see most of them after, though, since I was waiting backstage to briefly catch Hisaishi on his way out. I simply said, “Good work tonight!” in Japanese, and he made his way out.

Could not wait for the next concert!

Our Best-Overall Performance – Sunday

On Sunday, there were two performances, but I could only attend the matinee, as I was the lead panelist for The Ocarina Panel at Fanime that night. I first went to the convention to meet my friends David and Roxy who had just arrived from Los Angeles, then walked to the performing arts center. Our call time was 1:30 for a 2 PM concert, and after even more small musical changes, we took our places.

Everything went as smoothly as it possibly could, and there was even a surprise change in one song. At first, it was just a solo piano piece with Joe, but his daughter Mai joined in as a familial duet.

As a whole, Sunday afternoon ended up being the best concert we gave – which was fortunate, as my co-panelist Daniel was in the audience!

After finishing, I snapped a picture with Mai and thanked her for her help on Thursday. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have had the chance to personally meet Hisaishi, so I was extremely grateful. It was only a short interaction, but I hope it reached her.

I left the concert, changed out of dress clothes, met with Daniel, and got ready for our panel.

One concert to go.

The Final Act – Monday

We shuffled into the theater early, and many choir members exchanged contact information, took pictures together, and reminisced before our final change in the music and rehearsal before performing. Our director Michael and the Symphony’s president Andrew told us how great it was working with us, how well the guest singers (the ones who auditioned, including me) blended with the existing Chorale, and how this was the best-selling classical music concert in San Jose ever. It was definitely an honor to be a part of.

But we still have a concert to do! And David and Roxy (plus some other friends of mine) were in the audience!

We filed on stage, lined up, and the impact that this was our final concert hit us. This was the first time pre-concert jitters hit me. Moments later, Joe walked on stage to his usual applause, and the concert began. There were more hiccups than average across all the musicians and technicians this performance, likely due to the jitters we all were feeling, but we had the best 2nd half we had ever done. Just like every night, the packed audience ended with multiple standing ovations, but the total applause lasted around 10 minutes between the finale and each encore.

Joe and the soloists took their final bows, acknowledged the musicians behind them, and it was over.

I spent a lot of time backstage afterward, and the ensemble took more pictures together. Some of us got another picture with Joe before he left plus a picture with the soprano soloist.

Outside, I got a group picture with Mai and personal pictures with some of his staff members – one of whom gave me his business card (which is a bigger deal in Japan than America).

He and I spoke together in Japanese for a couple minutes and I mentioned how I was going to Japan this summer. He wished me luck, and then it was actually over…

…Until I went out for boba with some of the singers and gave a couple curious people a mini-panel on Ocarinas.

I got home, had dinner, and couldn’t stop thinking about the wonderful experience that had just happened.

To Quickly Recap

This was one of the best experiences of my life. I know I keep saying that about various things that keep happening, but it’s true. I keep having life-changing, big experiences and I am so thankful. I rehearsed with a great choir, made many friends, met and sang with the living legend Joe Hisaishi, I’ll definitely need to check myself about bragging about this one.

Best of luck,

-Andy

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