Azur Indian Music Project

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San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
Welcome to our music for development space where we will try to keep our friends updated on Azur Indian's latests. We also hope to engage actively with other musicians and anyone who is interested in development issues in general to hopefully reach higher grounds. So please, post your comments and share your thoughts with us! Azur Indian(アズール・インディアン)のブログへようこそ!このページでは私たちの活動をご紹介していくほか、音楽に興味がある方、国際協力・開発に興味がある方との交流の場を作っていければと考えています。みなさんの思いやコメントをこの場でぜひ共有してください!

Thursday 21 October 2010

Costa Rica コスタリカ

Do you know where Costa Rica is?

It's in central America, bordering to Panama and Nicaragua. San Jose is the capital. As other central American countries, Costa Rica used be a Spanish colony and became independent in 1821. Its population is slightly above 4,000,000. It's famous for a rich nature, rain forest and a country which eliminate armed force in '50s. The currency is "Colon" which originates from Spanish explorer "Christopher Columbus". People are formally called "Costa Rican" but its nickname is "Tico". Isn't it cute??







Explaining Costa Rica from Wikipedia might sound a bit boring....:)) so I will present it from what I have observed for past 2 months!

People
Ticos are latinos! They love music, dance and very relaxed people I should say. They love and are proud of their country. I love when people say "Tranquilo (be calm/be quiet)" for me when I am rush into something or out of control :)). Maybe this is something we don't have in Japan....?

People like music and it is always filled with music. Why I can say it is that my area where I live (it's down town of Ciudad Colon) is so! It's always with music with speakers....indeed....like right now.

Language
Spanish, but Costa Rican Spanish! They say "con mucho gusto" for almost anything which I heard that other Spanish speakers rarely say.

They rarely use "Tu" but always use "Usted". I have never heard of my host mother calling her husband "Tu" but "always Usted". "Tu" is "you" in English but informal "you". "Usted" is formal "you". ummm I don't think English has this notion....? In German, it's like "Du" and "Sie". In Japanese......??? maybe "Kimi" and "Anata"!???

They sometimes pronounce "R" like English "R" which is interesting to me because I thought Spanish "R" is always "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" when it comes to double "R"!

They also put "-imo"(ummm was it "-ito"? now I am confused! Correct me if I am wrong) at the end of the word which is close to what Spain Spanish people say "Midorita" (close to "small Midori"...)!

And most importantly, (this affects me the most) they speak super allegro!

Food
They eat a lot of......
-Rice (a bit harder than the Japanese one)
-Furijoles=Beans (beans themselves in the rice or mashed beans with/out bean skin. I love this bean paste without the skin)
-Meat (Beef, Chicken, Pork...)

I was a bit terrified of eating meat everyday(!?!?) but no need to worry, this country faces both Pacific and Caribbean, we still can get sea food :))

Weather
It is still rainy season right now, they say that dry season starts sometime in December. When I arrived in CR in August, we had rain almost everyday at almost same time like 1-2pm. It's like "A LOT", so-called "squall". It sometimes gets cold, and I regretted that I didn't bring warm clothes with me....Well, the rain is decreasing a little by little. Now we sometimes have full-sunny-day :)) Can't wait for the Dry season swimming in Caribbean!

Nature
As I said above that this country has rich nature, the government preserves them, as well. It has rich natural forests, volcano and beautiful sea....

Here is my favourite bird "Tucan". It's the symbol bird of the country.....



I will update as I found more interesting things :)


Entry: Midori

Tuesday 19 October 2010

The latest Azur Indian 最近のアズールインディアン

We would like to appreciate again here for the cooperation and attention people gave us in Niigata in order to operate this music project smoothly.

Niigata city hall, Niigata city International Association, Ishiyama san from Yu's music, Kawamura san from, Dr. Kani, Ryutopia, The Local, Kantae san......and many many friends!!

We both are very thankful not only for the music project, but also pure friendship we received from people. We are missing Niigata so much!

Since Antarqui came back to Costa Rica from Niigata, we are now working on starting out the new phase of our Music Project in Costa Rica! We are busy making name cards and promoting ourselves...

Let's see what will happen, don't miss it!

So far, I received two emails asking if we could play music at a party, but it was all in Spanish! My short term target became now to learn Spanish as soon as possible obviously...!!

Con suerte para mi!



まずは、お久しぶりです。新潟では本当にお世話になりました。きちんとみなさんにお礼ができないままこちらにきてしまった気がします・・・・失礼お許しください!

前にも書きましたが、新潟のみなさんには本当に感謝しています。Yu's musicの石山さん、カストワミューズの川村さん、Dr. 可児のオーナーと奥様、りゅうとぴあ、ローカル・・・・・etc etc ・・・・新潟じゃなかったら、絶対にできなかっただろうな・・・・と思う今日この頃。感謝です。

そして音楽だけではなく、お友達&知り合いとして仲良くしてくださった方々!こちらも本当にありがとうございました。新潟にはまた遊びに行くと思うので、これからもどうぞ宜しくです。

こちらコスタリカは雨季の真っ最中です。今年はラニーニョの影響で、雨季が明けるのが遅いんだとか・・・・雨のお陰で意外に寒いのです!

アンタルキが新潟から引き上げてコスタリカに帰ってきたので、こちらでも音楽をやろうかと今動き始めているところです。新潟で作った名刺はもう売り切れてしまったので・・・・こちらは増産中。あとは、どこかで演奏できないかプロモーションをしているところです。

私の目下の目標は基礎スペイン語習得・・・・早速「演奏してくれないか」というメールが2つも届いたのですが、読めない・・・・涙。電話も受けなきゃいけないかもしれないので、話す方もですねー。


Entry: Midori

A concert in Santa Ana 14th October 2010

Midori had another concert in Santa Ana with Sergio Nunes! It was held in the Casa de la cultura Santa Ana on the 14th October.

The venue looks quite new, and is 4 stories building, seems to have about 4-5 class rooms in each floor. The concert room was on the 3rd floor, and it can accommodate about 100 people.

The room was filled with audiences including students of Casa de la cultura and musicians. I didn't really expect my school friends to come because it was in Santa Ana and it was only Thursday....but some of my friends came over to see me, that made me very happy!

There was an old Kawai fluegel piano (how do you say that in English? Is it just "Grand piano"?) and this became tonight's another partner for me.

Funnily, I didn't become nervous at all (this was the first time in my life as far as I remember!!), and I could enjoy playing music with Sergio's cello. In this sense, I really could dig into my own music world and to collaborate that with Sergio's. I look forward the video that tricky tracky took :))

This was another new quality experience.

Muchas gracias :))







10月14日(木)セルヒオ・ヌニェスさんとの第2回目のコンサートを開きました。場所は首都のサンホセから約30分くらい北にある、少々ハイソな街、サンタアナ。こちらの文化センターにて行いました。

文化センターはコンクリートむき出しの現代的な4階建ての建物です。今回のコンサートホールは3階。収容人数は100人。

お陰さまで会場は文化センターに通う学生たちや、ミュージッシャン、そのほかの方でいっぱいになりました。木曜だったし、サンタアナだったし、普通の日は 忙しい私の学校の友達はあんまりきてはくれないだろうと、そんなに期待していなかったのですが、何人かきてくれました。うちの向かいに住んでいる人にも声 をかけてたのですが、彼も仕事帰りに立ち寄ってくれ。もう一人、何人家わからないんですが、メールでお知らせした方がきてくださいました。やっぱり知り合 いに応援されているのって嬉しいですね!

会場には年季の入ったカワイのグランドピアノ。今夜の私のお供です。

不思議なことに、全然緊張せず(人生初だったかも!?)演奏でき、そのお陰でセルヒオの音楽を感じ取りながら、自分の音楽をどうやって作るのか、ということに集中できた気がします。なんか嬉しい!!トリッキートラッキー(というあだ名の青年)がビデオを取ってくれたので、見てまた研究します。

また新しい経験・勉強になりました。


Entry: Midori

Saturday 9 October 2010

Un concierto de musica con Sergio Nunes セルヒオ・ヌニェスさんとのコンサート



On the 25th September, Midori had a concert with Costarican Cellist, Sergio Nunes at the theatre of Ciudad Colon in Costa Rica.

Ciudad Colon is about 20km north to the capital San Jose where there is an university (University for Peace) which I go.

Sergio Nunes is a prominent Cellist in Costa Rica. He studied music at a university in Brazil and continued to Master's in Berlin, Germany. Currently, he is the director of the Cultural Centre of Ciudad Colon.

We had many audiences on that night including my friends from the university and received warm compliments. Thank you very much!!!

I also learnt new perspectives and approaches on music from Sergio which, I am sure enrich my future play.

It was completely enjoyable to play before people after a half year. Also, I am very thankful for Sergio to give me such a chance, I am happy to be able to play in Costa Rica, yay! Moreover I am glad that I could get in touch with Costarican people particularly in Ciudad Colon through music.

Today's repertoires
1. Bach: Arioso
2. Saint-Saens: Allegro Appasionato
3. Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No.5
4. Schubert: Ave Maria
5. Schubert: Serenade
6. Faure: Elegie
7. Mascagni: Intermezzo Sinfonico
8. Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No.2
9. Saint-Saens: Swan
10. Popper: Govotte
Ancore: Luis Castillo: Luna Liberiana

*Here is a link of a news letter of my university. In the page 4, you can see my report regarding this concert.

http://www.allianceforupeace.nl/Uploaded_files/Editor/file/Newsflash%20UPEACE%20October%202010.pdf






9月25日、コスタリカ人チェリストのセルヒオヌニェスさんとシウダット・コロンのシアターにてコンサートをしました。シウダット・コロンは首都のサンホセから約20km北に位置し、人口は約15,000人、私の大学がある街でもあります。

チェリストのセルヒオさんですが、このシウダット・コロンの文化センターの館長さん。ブラジルの大学で音楽を専攻し、その後、修士をベルリンでされています。

シウダット・コロンのシアターなのですが、結構年季が入ってて、建てられたのは1946年ってかかれてた気が・・・・すごくシンプルな収容人数200人のこじんまりしたかわいいシアターです。

土曜日だったこともあり、学校の友達が多数見にきてくれ、会場は満杯!わーい!みなさんからたくさんお暖かいお言葉をいただきました。ありがとうございます。

セルヒオさんのようなチェリストと演奏をさせていただけるのは、私にとっても本当にいい経験。ベルリンで培ってきた彼の音楽性が、練習しているだけで、吸収できる!やった!!新しい発見もたくさんありました。ピアノがもっとうまくなりたいと思った次第です・・・それから、何より音楽で地元の人と交流ができたことが一番の収穫。音楽で平和を作っていこうとしているので、その第1の足がかりになりました。

*大学のニュースレターにコンサートのレポートが掲載されましたー!4ページ目です。ご覧ください!
http://www.allianceforupeace.nl/Uploaded_files/Editor/file/Newsflash%20UPEACE%20October%202010.pdf

Entry: Midori