Friendship Week – An Amazing Experience

Membership

Japanese and Swedish Sweet Adelines at Nikko Toshogu Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where they performed together as part of Friendship Week.

FRIENDSHIP WEEK – AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE!

Swedish and Japanese choruses’ “small gathering” forges big connections

Last November, 49 singers from three Swedish choruses—Gothia

Show Chorus, Key Town Harmony and Västerås Show Chorus— went to Japan for a week of singing, education and bonding. Friendship Week was the result of two years’ preparation which started in October 2016 with a Gothia member (a former resident of Japan) writing a letter to Megumi Yamashiro, then-president of Tokyo Chorus, asking about the possibility of a get-together. Tokyo Chorus, which was quite small, asked themselves: “Can we do this?”

“But if we don’t take this opportunity, we will never be able to have this kind of thing in the future. Opportunity knocks only once,” Yamashiro and her chorus decided.

They imagined it might be a small friendly exchange, but it grew!

The Swedish choruses decided to make the Japan trip a “Big Chorus Project.” Directors Maria Wessman, Annika Christensen and Marie Erenstedt combined the names of the three choruses, calling themselves GoKeyVäst, and created a site with music, learning tracks, choreography, handouts for the classes and the workshop program. The Swedish Embassy, celebrating 150 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Sweden, backed the event.

“Once in Japan, we began with a few days of sightseeing, beginning with Kiyomizu Temple and Fushimi Inari temple,” said Erenstedt. “We visited Mount Fuji, where we got to sing ‘Anthem’ on the terrace as high as you can come on Mount Fuji! At Lake Ashi, we ate black eggs (which make you live seven years longer!).”

Member-at-large Mitsuko Yanagita arranged for the group to visit Nikko Toshogu Shrine, a 15th century shrine that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The shrine’s priest kindly accepted the offer for the chorus to sing there. Nothing like this had been done there before.

“Some of the members in the Japanese choruses joined us on this trip, and for the last three songs in our 40-minute program, we invited them to sing with us,” said Erenstedt. “The performance was a purely magical experience. A large audience enjoyed the beautiful a cappella harmony in silence, surrounded by beautifully colored leaves

Japanese and Swedish Sweet Adelines singing ”How We Sang Today” during Friendship Week.

The four directors who led classes in Japan.

under the blue autumn sky. Such an honor! We thank Mitsuko for giving us this rare opportunity!”

During the workshop that followed that weekend, four directors—Annika Christensen, Maria Wessman, Dan Molloy and Marie Erenstedt—held nine classes on topics including how to teach choreography, riser placement and vocal skills. All handouts had been translated into Japanese.

On Saturday evening came the peak of two years’ preparation.

Many singing groups performed a varied program, ending with “How We Sang Today,” directed by T’dash Iwata, director of Tokyo Chorus, with 50 Swedish and 60 Japanese women. Some had a hard time singing from all the emotion. Afterward, they celebrated with an amazing party with lots of singing to and with each other.

“We really enjoyed this unexpectedly big event, as did the audience, made up of our families, friends, and guests. The people who attended this concert really loved this beautiful evening,” said Kayoko Yoshida, project leader in Japan. “Thank you everyone who has given us so much help for the past two years! The Tokyo Chorus marks its 40th anniversary in 2019. We will take our next big step into the future.”

GoKeyVäst now has 125 members, and they decided to extend this merger. Their next happening was a concert in Eskilstuna on April 6, 2019. Who knows what will happen next?

“This has been a wonderful experience for us all!” said Erenstedt. “The Japanese people are immensely friendly, and Japan is an amazingly beautiful country to visit. Maybe next time a Japanese chorus wants to attend a convention and compete, they might come to Sweden! We welcome you with all our hearts!”

Marie Erenstedt, Director of Gothia Show Chorus Megumi Yamashiro and Kayoko Yoshida, Tokyo Chorus