{"id":1131,"date":"2012-04-06T10:43:32","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T01:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kcjs.jp\/cip\/?p=1131"},"modified":"2012-04-06T10:43:32","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T01:43:32","slug":"natasha-gollin-kyoto-university-gasshoudan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/2012\/04\/06\/natasha-gollin-kyoto-university-gasshoudan-2","title":{"rendered":"Natasha Gollin: Kyoto University Gasshoudan"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been attending choir practice regularly since I first joined the Kyoudai Gasshoudan, or the Kyoto University Mixed Voices Chorus, early in fall semester. There was a break for approximately a month this semester, but other than that, I have usually been going to practices twice a week, and if all works out I intend to appear in part of the annual spring mini-concert\/happyoukai<\/em> on April 28th.<\/p>\n

Starting choir last semester was hard because I did not know anyone there, save for one classmate. Additionally, the others had a head start on the songs, and I even had to learn how to pronounce some Hungarian! There were also some choir traditions and routines that I had to get used to\u2014staying after for announcements and optional singing time, for one. But now, not only do I understand a lot of the musical terms (such as gakufu<\/em>, \u201csheet music\u201d and ensoukai ni noru<\/em>, \u201cto appear in a concert, lit. \u2018ride\u2019\u201d) and find the music easier to learn, but I have several fellow KCJSers there with me! I feel like my decision to continue choir had a large influence on the decision of not just one, but FIVE other students to join as well. I am also used to the routine of things, though it gets tiring at times going over the same part in the music ad nauseam, or doing exercises for reasons unclear to me.<\/p>\n

Due to the costs and time involved, this time I also passed on a couple of major choir happenings that I had participated in last semester: the retreat (which cost far more than last time, and even included some school days), and appearing in the full concert (which costs around 10,000 yen, but I decided to at least be in the E-ru (theme\/fight song?) and encore, which only costs 2000 yen\u2014not cheap, but at least I perform at all). However, because of this and the time off, I feel a little less connected to choir this semester. There is less motivation to keep attending each practice when I will not actually be performing the songs.<\/p>\n

At first I may have been a hindrance, but now I feel like more of a \u201creal member\u201d than before. For one, since the end of the winter concert, I have graduated from a chorus first-year to a shin-nikaisei (\u201cnew\u201d second year)! Also, I have been part of a planning team for a fun Christmas event with party games and song performances for each other. I have also performed an English song (Jason Mraz\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Yours\u201d) with two other KCJSers at this semester\u2019s version of that event\u2026and it was a huge hit. One person didn\u2019t even care about looking up the actual song\u2014he just wished he could hear OUR version again.\u00a0 We found out a few weeks later that our act had won the grand prize by popular choice! I haven\u2019t been so pleasantly shocked in a while.<\/p>\n

After my time with the Gasshoudan, I came to see that its members are committed in a different way from typical American choruses\u2014perhaps more at the same level as a college a cappella group. Because of the choir\u2019s many expenses and hours of practice per week, the members have a high degree of loyalty and commitment to the group\u2014often it is their only extracurricular activity. \u00a0Also, as I mentioned in my blog last semester, this choir certainly has its traditions, or shall I say quirks\u2014odd nicknames, staying after practice for announcements where people in various leadership positions run up in front of the crowd and say things in unison, singing extra songs after that, and an array of unusual warm-ups, such as forming large concentric circles and doing scales while marching quickly backwards around the conductor. I am still fairly sure that this does not represent Japanese choirs as a whole\u2026as I said last semester, the Kyodai Gasshoudan is just \u201ca group with a long and distinguished history of excellence and quirkiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

From my CIP, I learned that people will always be there to help me or explain things to me when I need it, so I should not worry and struggle through the music director\u2019s instructions alone. Since they were there for me, I felt the desire to continue in choir and keep working with them to make lovely music\u2014which is, in the end, the objective here.<\/p>\n

Though the Gasshoudan was socially out of my comfort zone, I learned that while in a foreign country, it\u2019s always good to put yourself out there and try to bond with your peers\u2014to start talking with people, work hard at what you\u2019re doing, keep a cheerful and approachable demeanor, and do not be afraid to ask questions. You will get a lot out of your experience, trust me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been attending choir practice regularly since I first joined the Kyoudai Gasshoudan, or the Kyoto Unive … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080 →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_locale":"","_original_post":""},"categories":[4,33,40],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}