2015-05-14 Update
Machie Oguri, Violin
―You have been participating in many of the regular concerts given by the Mito Chamber Orchestra. What is its attractiveness for you?
First of all, each member is so wonderful. Also, MCO feels like a big quartet. Everyone in the group has experience playing chamber music, and everyone has the experience of doing music spontaneously, listening to each other’s sound, and their hearts uniting. So, it feels somewhat like an extension of a quartet, and I'm happy to have such fruitful experiences there. Of course, Seiji Ozawa's direction has always been impressive to me. It’s like getting musical soul food. Another point is that the group is an assembly of people of all ages, from seniors to young people, some of whom I have taught. Seeing some of the original long-term members who are still active—Shoko Aki, Miwako Watanabe, and Masuko Ushioda (until she passed away in 2013)—makes me want to be like them.
In addition, I think that the enthusiasm and love for the orchestra by the people of Art Tower Mito are wonderful. There are shops (in Mito) with a constantly warm, homelike atmosphere, and which know all of our names and support us. I feel that the orchestra is really blessed to get such a welcomed from the whole town. The townspeople have the kind of enthusiasm that nurtures the group so that everyone can listen to good music. That sort of thing draws members into Mito from both Japan and overseas, I think.
―Why did you start playing the violin?
My father, who was a banker, loved music, and he loved playing the mandolin and singing songs. I started playing the violin when I was given one for my 4th birthday. I learned by the Suzuki Method. I was born in Osaka, but after that I moved to Tokyo, and when I was in the first grade of elementary school, I entered The Music School for Children at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, where I studied solfeggio and played in an orchestra ensemble. Seiji Ozawa, who was still a student there at the time, belonged to the Toho Gakuen orchestra. It was very fun for me growing up, commuting by bus to school from Shinjuku in Tokyo and eating sweets on board, and enjoying playing in ensembles with my friends. From an early age, I think I was fortunate to have a good education. My dad played viola in a quartet with his bank colleagues at the time. When the cello players came to my house, my father told me, “Machie, you play first (violin)” (laughter). I decided to become really serious about the violin when I reached the upper grades of elementary school. When I played J.S. Bach's Violin Sonata No. 1 as a child, it was very interesting for me to practice the piece by myself and discover various aspects of the score.
―What do you think was the starting point for your music activities?
It was a quartet was where I really started to learn music. When I returned to Osaka, my hometown, in elementary school, Hideo Saito told me, “I also created a music classroom at Soai Gakuen, where you can learn from a teacher named Yuji Togi.” So, I started going there that fall. The music class was a classroom created by Hideo Saito, Hidekazu Yoshida, Motonori Iguchi, and Takeo Ito along the lines of Toho, where students could learn solfeggio and play in ensembles every week. Mr. Saito also came down from Tokyo once a month to teach. He even came to a summer camp we had on Mt. Koya (Wakayama Prefecture), where we stayed at a temple for about five days, and he taught us there. Also, when I went to Toho Girls' Senior High School, my teacher told me to form a quartet with three other children. On the day that that the results of the entrance examination to Toho Gakuen School of Music were posted, Akiko Tatsumi (who now teaches at Toho Gakuen), Miwako Nagatomi (who is now in Germany) and Mari Fujiwara all showed up, saying, “Machie-chan is now going to do a quartet with us” (laughter). The teachers really taught us well, and they started from scratch. In the first year, we only played Haydn's String Quartet Op. 77-1. In the second year, we only did Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 18-1. We rehearsed every day before class, from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. It was interesting.
―What does Hideo Saito represent for you?
He was a big presence for me. He was really kind to me. Sometimes, whenever we did something that deviated from the score, he would ask us, “Why do you want to do it that way?” And when we answered, “We feel that way,” he would respond, “That could be interesting. Try it out.” He often took us under the wing, and we even took lessons from him at his villa in Karuizawa. His passion for education and love for his students—all the things I learned from him—are useful to me now as I teach.
―What do you remember most about his teaching method?
The first is to think about the music faithfully, based on the score, then to sing with your heart. He also showed us how to use the body when playing an instrument. When I was a college student, I went to a music school in Hiroshima as a member of a teaching team made up of about four people. I took lesson notes, but sometimes he would look at them and tell me, “You need to teach this, but you left it out.” I think that he wanted the next generation, including me, to inherit his teaching methods.
―After graduating from the music department of Toho Gakuen High School, you studied at the Toho Gakuen College Music Department, right?
Yes, ever since I was in high school, I studied the violin under Toshiya Eto. He was young and had just returned from the United States, and when he played for me during my lessons, his sound was meltingly rich. I fell in love with his sound. For the first two months, he only let me play on open strings. I studied orchestra and chamber music for seven years under Mr. Saito.
―Could you tell us about any particularly memorable experiences that you had at the university?
When I was in my senior year of college, I had the opportunity to go to Europe on a performance tour by the Toho Gakuen String Orchestra. From late September until the end of November, we toured around thirteen countries and performed more than thirty concerts. I think Mr. Saito wanted to see how well the orchestra he had trained would do in Europe. I remember how moved and happy we were when the applause wouldn’t stop. Putting on such a large-scale performance tour, not to mention the fact we were an orchestra of students, ought to be something completely impossible, I think. It was a really lucky experience for us.
After graduating, I taught as an assistant at Toho for two years before going abroad to study at Indiana University. During that period, I took part in the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition and won a special prize, and on the way back just happened to get married at Indiana University.
―I heard that while you were in the States, you formed the International String Quartet with your husband, Chihiro Kudo.
Yes. After getting my artist diploma during my time studying abroad, Joseph Gingold told me, “I want you two to form a quartet along with two other musicians; anyone is okay. I have a job for you to do.” We started out together with an American violinist and a German cellist. The first piece we played was Beethoven's String Quartet, op. 95, “Serioso.” I thought we produced a really great unison sound at the beginning of the piece, and thought to myself, “Wow, that feels good!” We were at Indiana University's largest branch, which was at Bloomington, but we did the job because the South Bend School of Music needed a quartet in residence. In 1976, we won the Evian International String Quartet Competition in France, and in the following year we placed in the String Quartet category at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. We continued the quartet for about ten years, based in the States.
―At the time, there were a lot of distinguished musicians at Indiana University.
At the time, Gingold was there, along with Franco Gulli, János Starker on the cello, and Menahem Pressler, who will appear in a concert with the MCO in November (2015). Dr. Pressler pampered me during our quartet era. We used to put on concerts of Brahms and Dvorak piano quintets together, so I'm really looking forward to the regular concert with him in November. At that time, Dr. Pressler was holding a summer chamber music seminar, with pianists coming to participate. Even though they wanted to take lessons about piano trios or quintets, a lot of them didn’t bring string musicians along with them, so we had the opportunity to play together with those people, and I learned a lot. I also took lessons with Robert Mann. He would do a lesson on Mozart and take an hour to look at just the first ten bars. Anyway, for me, having played in the quartet has been my greatest musical asset.
―After your return to Japan, down to the present day, you have been teaching at Soai University in Osaka.
Yes. When my husband and I were in the United States, we got news that Yuji Togi (1928-85), a teacher from whom I had once learned, had died, and that they were looking for a replacement. We had been playing in our quartet in the United States from 1973 to 1986, but our kids were of school age, so I thought that it would a good opportunity and decided to return to Soai. At that time, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra was looking for a concertmaster, and my husband Kudo took that job. When I was young, Mr. Saito had taken care of me at my music classes of Soai. Wanting to educate young people living here and there, he would come down to Osaka from Tokyo despite his busy schedule. Now people can travel (between Tokyo and Osaka) by bullet train in the blink of an eye, but in the past, it took much longer. “I am coming to Osaka in this way, because there are so many children who need to learn in the places where their parents live,” he said. I came back to Soai because of my connections there, and have been there for almost thirty years, hoping to use it as a base and educate young people.
―You have educated many excellent violinists. If I mention just those who have played with the MCO, they include Chicaco Nakajima, Mayu Kishima, Mayuko Kamio, Tomoko Shinohara, and Kota Nagahara.
I taught Chika-chan (Ms. Nakajima) when she was a high school student. Cheerful Chika is such a wonderful talent. As for Ms. Kamio, Mr. Kudo taught her from the third grade in elementary school until she switched to Koichiro Harada. When he listened to her for the first time at her first lesson with him, Mr. Kudo said, “This child could be ranked first in the country despite being in just the fourth grade! Such a rare talent.” Since second grade or so, Ms. Kishima studied under me until she switched to Mr. Zakhar Nukhimovich Bron. I taught Ms. Shinohara from junior high school until she graduated from Soai High School. Kota-kun (Mr. Nagahara) commuted (to Osaka) from Hiroshima since the end of fourth grade, and used to stay at our home occasionally as he is the same age as my daughter. From the upper grades of elementary school to junior high school, they all absorb various things like sponges, so everyone grows at a really fast pace. They have all been a series of surprises for me. I am really happy to have had such students.
―What are your thoughts on education?
It’s important to approach each and every student with sincerity. Everybody is different, so we need to help them grow as much as they can in the way they want. The teacher needs to accompany them along that path. Besides lesson times, I want to do a lot of things together with them. You need a lot of energy to do that, though (laughter). However, being able to be together with such students, who are like a bundle of energy that is ready to grow, also gives me energy to live, and I'm very grateful for that.
―You are also active with the Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka.
Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka is a single-wind ensemble together with a piano. Founded in 2000 as an orchestra in residence at Izumi Hall, it brings together musicians with some connection to the Kansai area. Because modern music forms the core of its repertoire, it’s hard for it to get much of an audience. Though sometimes we experience the joy of bringing a new masterpiece into the world, other works take so much time to prepare that we think “Wait a sec, this is hard!” But there is great enthusiasm on the part of people in the hall, saying, “We want to be able to perform the best music by living composers in Japan and remarkable contemporary works of the world.” That's why we are working so hard.
―Is there anything you have noticed about the future of MCO that you would like to tell us?
First of all, I think it is important to fully appreciate, as we pursue our activities, what a treasure it is for us to be exposed to Mr. Ozawa's music. When we are performing without a conductor, we need to be that much stricter with each sound to turn it into a really good ensemble. Because of (the high quality of) the members, it’s okay sometimes just to play without much preparation. But we have to have the desire to make things even better. We also need the grit to actively welcome newcomers who are willing to actively participate in creating music. When Ms. Masuko Ushioda was there, we played Mozart's Divertimento many times together, and after each phrase, she kept on asking us, “Won’t you do this? Won’t you do that?” I think that’s important. As long as we keep important things in our hearts that we must not lose sight of precisely because everyone is so good, I think that wonderful music will surely continue to reverberate here for a long time.
May 2015
Interviewer: Maki Takasu
