Tag: Arts/Entertainment

‘Body percussion’ prof in Japan wants instrument-free music education to go global

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Toshiyuki Yamada demonstrates body percussion by clapping, in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Dec. 2, 2022. (Mainichi/Naoko Takashiba)


KURUME, Fukuoka — Through a mixture of claps, stomps and knee-slaps, a professor from this southwest Japan city has been a pioneer in teaching instrument-free “body percussion” to students for decades. Now, he plans to bring the subject to Britain in hopes of making it a global educational phenomenon.


Professor Toshiyuki Yamada of Kyushu Otani Junior College and a team of around 30 others will be going to Britain’s University of Oxford in March 2023 for a research presentation and performance of body percussion — making percussive music through maneuvers such as clapping, stomping and knee-slapping. They will perform around 10 songs, including Yamada’s composition “Hanabi” (fireworks), inspired by the annual Chikugo River Fireworks Festival that lights up Kurume’s skies every summer. During the presentation, Yamada will offer teaching tips, explain its impact and extol its virtues as a way for people to have fun together regardless of disability.


Yamada began teaching body percussion over 30 years ago, during his days as an elementary school teacher in Kurume. It started when he got students who were having trouble concentrating in class to clap along to songs. He went on to develop methods of teaching the subject while practicing it with students at elementary and special needs schools in the city.


“Children enjoy being able to make music without instruments, just by using their movements, and the sense of accomplishment when they get into a rhythm with their peers. Those with hearing impairments can play along by watching the instructor’s movements and by feeling the beat,” Yamada said.


Yamada’s body percussion compositions have received widespread acclaim, and have become a part of music education curricula at elementary and special needs schools. The songs have been performed alongside the NHK Symphony Orchestra. They have been taught in Cambodia and have previously been demonstrated in other famous locations including New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna, Austria.


The team going to Oxford includes students and staff from Kurume and beyond, ranging from teenagers to those in their 60s. Participating institutions include Fukuoka Prefectural Meizen High School in Kurume, Tokyo’s Kunitachi College of Music, and Fukuoka Jo-Gakuin University in the city of Fukuoka.


“Body percussion can be performed on its own as well as in combination with various genres of music. It originated in the educational field and was developed by children. I want it to become known as a way for kids of all backgrounds to take part in an activity together,” Yamada continued, further emphasizing the subject’s potential for wider appeal.


(Japanese original by Naoko Takashiba, Kurume Bureau)

South Korean composer wins Geneva music competition, Japanese 2nd

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Shin Kim, right, of South Korea and Yuki Nakahashi, center, of Japan answer questions from an emcee at the Geneva International Music Competition in Geneva, on Oct. 26, 2022. (Kyodo)


GENEVA (Kyodo) — Shin Kim of South Korea on Wednesday won the top prize in the composition division at an international competition for young musicians in Switzerland, with Japanese Yuki Nakahashi coming second, the contest’s organizer said.


The 27-year-old South Korean gets 15,000 Swiss francs ($15,000) for winning first prize at the Geneva International Music Competition in Geneva. Armin Cservenak of Hungary, 27, came third.


Nakahashi, who studied under Japanese composer Ichiro Nodaira at the Tokyo University of the Arts and now is a student at the Conservatory of Paris, also won three of the four additional special prizes awarded in the composition category, including those chosen by music students and members of the audience.


Nakahashi, 27, said he was pleased with the results. “The most impressive thing was that I was able to play with wonderful performers,” he said.


Kim won the top prize for a contemporary piece entitled “The Song of Oneiroi” he composed for the contest.


“It means a lot to me to receive this prize because the Geneva competition is one of the biggest in the world. I think it is a great first step for me as a composer,” he said after the award ceremony.


A graduate of the Korea University of Arts where he studied under South Korean composer Byungmoo Lee, Kim is currently a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London.


“The richness of the vocal sound quality in Kim’s piece was fantastic,” the chair of the jury, Beat Furrer, said. “Shouting, screaming, soft and tensed sounds, the sound range was enormous,” he added.


The Geneva competition, founded in 1939 to promote young talented musicians, is considered a springboard to an international career.



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Ann and Gordon Getty’s Collection of 1,500 Items Achieved $150 Million Across 10 Auctions

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Ann and Gordon Getty’s collection achieved more than US$150 million across four live and six online auctions at Christie’s.


Courtesy of Christie’s

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Ann and
Gordon Getty’s
collection achieved more than US$150 million across four live and six online auctions at Christie’s that concluded Tuesday, making it one of the top three collections of both decorative and fine arts ever sold at Christie’s.

Each of the 10 auctions met or exceeded their presale estimates, each with a 100% sell-through rate, the auction house said. 

Proceeds will benefit the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation for the Arts, which supports a range of California-based arts and science charities. 

The nearly 1,500 works in the collection were drawn from Getty’s townhouse in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood. Gordon Getty, 88, a son of oil tycoon
J. Paul Getty,
led the sale of his family’s oil business to Texaco for US$10.1 billion in 1984. Since then, he has focused on his interests in classical music composing, and philanthropy. His wife, Ann, died in 2020 at the age of 81.

At the evening auction on Thursday at Christie’s New York saleroom, 60 lots fetched a combined US$79.4 million, which didn’t include the expected sale of Venice, the Grand Canal looking East with Santa Maria della Salute by Italian Venetian-school painter
Giovanni Antonio Canal,
commonly known as Canaletto. The painting sold privately hours before the live auction to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco through a donation by
Diane B. Wilsey,
a former chair of the museum, according to Christie’s. The painting was valued between US$6 million and US$10 million. 

Mary Cassatt’s
Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Right became the top lot, selling for US$7.5 million, setting a record at auction for the 82-year-old American painter and printmaker. The work, with a presale estimate between US$3 million and US$5 million, was acquired by the Pola Museum of Art in Hakone in Japan.

An early George III walnut and parcel-gilt side chair


Courtesy of Christie’s

“As the momentum built over 10 auctions, Christie’s was thrilled to see the funding of the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation for the Arts increasing sale by sale,”
Marc Porter,
chairman of Christie’s Americas, said in a news release. “It is also important to note that museums purchased the two highest value paintings for public display.”

The other three live auctions took place from Friday to Sunday, featuring paintings, English and European furniture and silverware, as well as Chinese works of art. In total, the four live auctions achieved nearly US$140 million, against a presale estimate of US$125 million.

In addition to Cassatt, three other artists saw their auction records reset, according to Christie’s.
Jacques-Émile Blanche’s
Vaslav Nijinsky in “Danse Siamoise” sold for US$2.7 million;
Jules Bastien-Lepage’s
Portrait de Sarah Bernhardt achieved US$2.28 million, and
Jean-Antoine Watteau’s
Three Head Studies Of A Girl Wearing A Hat, fetched US$3.42 million.

The Getty Collection became the third most valuable collection of both decorative and fine arts sold at Christie’s, following the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and
Pierre Bergé
in 2009 for €373.9 million (US$483.8 million), and the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller for US$832.6 million in 2018.



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