In Saturday’s (4/30) Japan Times (Tokyo), Minoru Matsutani writes, “Robert Ryker, the conductor and music director of Tokyo Sinfonia, has a dream to help heal the broken hearts of tsunami survivors with music. ‘The holiday season is a period of high stress,’ Ryker, 72, who has dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship, told The Japan Times. ‘Music is part of healing.’ Ryker, who has lived in Tokyo for 30 years, said he will take the Tokyo Sinfonia orchestra, composed of 19 string players, to perform at evacuation centers in Miyagi Prefecture on Sunday and Monday. Baroque Japan Ltd., a Japanese company that operates a chain of clothing shops, will sponsor the trip, covering transportation and accommodation costs. It will also donate thank-you money to orchestra members, the conductor said. Ryker and his orchestra will leave Tokyo on Sunday morning and will play music drawn from the Tchaikovsky serenade program to people now living in evacuation centers, including a public junior high school in Sendai on Sunday and Kesennuma, also in Miyagi Prefecture, on Monday.”
Posted May 2, 2011
