Hi everyone,
So the show is over, and we only have some administration work to do before ending this project.
But I would like to share the footage of the performance with you.
Photos are taken by Martin Jönsson, Kumiko Uchida, Hokuto Kodama and Mariko Kida.
Click the pictures for a better view.
Thank you so much for your support. I just came home now. Overwhelmed with emotions.
Today, I ate muesli in a morning, few bites of sandwich for lunch, and lots of beer for dinner. It tells that it was a busy, but a great day, I think.
I just wanted to say quick thanks for everyone involved in this performance, including every single reader of this website.
Thank you, for supporting us and Japan from your heart.
Finally, tomorrow (Wednesday) is the day. We have the show at 19:30 in Konserthuset!!!
It will be an absolutely memorable evening. Please come with your friends and family.
It will be the best 280kr you will spend. You get to see the great performance, and you are making donation at the same time to save Japan!!!
Thank you eveyone for your support all the way until here. We could not have done this without you.
Hello, so the show is coming up tomorrow. Everybody is pumped up and excited.
So far, we have about 100 seats left for the show. So you can still hook up with friends and come together to get your tickets at the ticket office before the show. We have some coverage by media tomorrow morning, such as Metro, Sveriges Radio, and TV4. We expect to sell quite many tickets tomorrow, so if you want to get as good seat as possible, we would recommend you to get your ticket online. It is not complicated and not more expensive than buying at the Konserthuset.
Check out TV4, Metro and SverigesRadio tomorrow morning! It will also be on their website!!!
We now have a pretty cool partnership with Play for Japan, it is a charity project and a portal website founded in UK to support the relief effort to Japan.
They have organized and introduced many charity events and projects all over the world, and they have been playing a big role in tying together international groups/individuals who are making actions to save Japan.
We are planning to put up reports of Från Göteborg till Japan charity art performance on Play for Japan website, and hopefully some footage from the performance too. I think it will be a great action so that we don't end up just collecting money and send it, but we speak up towards whole world and Japan.
Another news is that we will have a great master of ceremony for our evening, Ms Mia Ringblom Hjertner.
She is a great actress and singer, who played numerous important roles in GöteborgsOperan's musical and children's opera productions. http://en.opera.se/om-oss/personal/portratt/mia-ringblom-hjertner/
We are very pleased to have her in our performance. Thank you, Mia!
Getting closer to the show... did you get your tickets yet?
Ticket office is closed, but their website is open and you can pick yourself the seats you like. Parterre is pretty full, but first balcony and second balcony is still quite empty and you can get good seats on those sections. So try going to www.gso.se and book yourself a best seat available! http://www.gso.se/?pageid=8697&gotoEventDate=2011-04-27
Last artist we would like to introduce to you is the legendary electric bassist, Magnus Rosén.
He was born in Göteborg, and was a member of famous metal band, HammerFall during 1997 until 2007.
As bassist, he has achieved world tours, golden records, Euro awards, Grammy nominations, charity tours, 6 solo albums and about 25 albums recorded in heavy metal, rock, funk and pop, Artist of the year 2006 Us Corp, Ambassador for all music and culture schools in Sweden 2007 / 2008, Save the Earth prize 2009, The culture prize 2009.
He has also collaborated with many music institutions such as Swedish National Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Gavle Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Ballet.
On November 2009, Magnus joined ex-Stratovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki's new band Revolution Renaissance.
Also on 2011, Magnus joined new band, BLACK, with metal legend Tony Martin (vocal), and Andy Larocque (guitar).
Magnus has toured to his favorite country Japan in many occasion including his solo tour concert, and have approached us to play in our performance, with a great sympathy to the victims of the disaster.
We would like to thank Magnus for his cooperation to our performance, and his love to Japan.
Hi everyone, I hope you are having nice easter break.
I think many of you have noticed, but there was our ad on GP yesterday! I hope it grabs attention of people.
We still have about 50% of seats left, so please, please spread the word out by sharing our facebook page which you can go from right side of this blog, or simply by word of mouth...
Here is the link to our event page: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=202984546401114
During the easter, ticket office of Konserthuset is closed, but you can still purchase them online, and pick yourself the seats you want. Even with online purchase, the ticket price is 280kr including service fee, so why not reserve a seat while you are at home! http://www.gso.se/?pageid=8697&gotoEventDate=2011-04-27
We are happy to introduce a new artist in the event, Kazuyo Nomura.
She is a textile artist, and will have her work displayed at the foyer of the theater.
Also, she will design some post cards to be purchased for charity.
Only cash accepted.
Kazuyo Nomura has been a resident of Sweden since late 80s, studied textile art at HDK, and designing at University of Boras. She is currently based in Göteborg, working as texile artist-designer. As an textile artist, she has been mainly presenting her works in exhibitions, and designed products for companies such as IKEA of Sweden, Almedahl AB among others. Kazuyo received The Nordic Award in Textiles in 2006.
She is definitely one of top textile artists in Sweden, leading the scene with mixture of scandinavian design and a touch of Japanese craft.
Hi, everyone. We have now sold about 165 seats so far. The parquet is already 75% full. so good seat are going fast. We will be releasing information to press, and there will an ad on GP in coming few days.
Yukimi Nagano is a Japanese-Swedish singer, who has been featured by urban music artists such as Stateless, Koop, Hird and Sleepwalker among others. She formed Little Dragon in 1996 with her close friends at high school, Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrik Källgren Wallin (bass), and Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards). After releasing their first single "Twice/Test" in 2006, they have quickly gained international popularity. This same song had been used in season 5 of popular TV show, Grey's Anatomy. After "Twice/Test", Little Dragon have released albums titled "Little Dragon" in 2007, "Machine Dreams" in 2009, which both became immediate success. They are featured as guest artists in the album "Plastic Beach" by famous UK band, Golliraz, and been touring with them worldwide.
For this performance, Little Dragon will perform in more acoustic style set up, and dedicate their energetic performance to the people of Japan. More info on www.littledragon.se
Father of Sumie and Yukimi Nagano and also a famous Graphic Designer established in Sweden, Yusuke Nagano is willing to sell some of his beautiful artworks for charity. All the sales will be put together with the donation for the performance to be sent to Japan. Prices are set very low for this special occasion, so if you love these pieces, you cannot miss this opportunity. Only 5 copies of each pieces available for sale at the performance. We accept only cash.
Yasuhito Mori has been playing the bass since 70s, and played with many jazz and classical group in Japan. In 1981, he has moved to Sweden, and started playing with many swedish jazz group such as Mount Everest, Bohuslän Big Band and duo project with Anders Hagberg, Winduo. Yasuhito has started jazz international exchange program, "Scandinavian Connection" and produced more than 30 tours to Japan with Swedish artists. He literally has been a bridge between Japanese and Swedish jazz culture.
Right now, he is playing as a regular bass player with Bohuslän Big Band, Anders Persson Trio, Ewan Svensson Quartet, Tommy Kotter Trio, Mike Del Ferro Trio, Sven Eric Dahlberg Trio and also continuing his artistic collaboration with Anders Hagberg in Winduo for more than 25 years.
Yasuhito has been also inveted to play with jazz giants like Stan Getz, Lee Konitz and Putte Wickman around the world.
For this occasion, Yasuhito will play with a jazz pianist, Simon Westman. Their experience of creating a strong GBG-JPN connection has something special to our performance. It will be a sweet show, guaranteed!!
Wow, what a beautiful day it was in Göteborg today! I couldn't resist buying a bottle of Rosé, it's my first bottle of the season.
It's only been 4 days since the start of ticket sales, but we have already filled about 80 seats out of 360 seats!! And from tomorrow, we will put out many posters and flyers out in the city, so everyone will get to know about the show. So reserve a good seat for yourself, before they are all gone!!!
Yuusaku Ichio is contemporary guitarist and composer currently studying at Göteborg University Artisten improvisation course. He has been playing as jazz guitarist in Japan, and collaborated with many artists, including Naoko Sakata, who is also taking a part of this performance.
The Colours is his newest contemporary jazz group, formed with Carl Emil Svensson(guitar), Donovan Von Martens(bass), Anna Lund(drums), Martin Svanström(sax). They play the music with perfect balance of dreamy harmony and hint of spontaneous improvisation. Just like the colors of nature, it gives wonderful touch of vibrancy in its natural flow.
Hello, we hope you are having nice weekend. It is so beautiful outside today in Göteborg. There are cherry blossoms blooming in Japan right now too. Most beautiful few weeks of a year in Japan. I just love spring.
Anyway, it is soon two weeks before the performance, and we have created a facebook event page. It is little bit easier to pass it around to your friends, and a great way to find out who you can come see the show with.
Hi everyone!!!
So, after a short, but intense period of preparation, the tickets are now on sale!!!
280kr including service fee.
They are available at ticket office of Konserthuset, Götaplatsen.
You can also book the tickets by phone at 031 7265310 , or online at Göteborgs Symfoniker website www.gso.se
Posters and flyers will be out beginning of next week and more people will know about the show, so act fast to reserve a good seat for yourself!
There was another earthquake of magnitude 7.4 today in Miyagi, Japan.
We hope for everyone's safety... I cannot even imagine the fear they are experiencing.
All we can do now is to put maximum effort into this charity performance, to give support and to send good energy from Göteborg.
It is really far, but we wish to stay as close as possible in our heart. to those people having sleepless nights in Japan.
Sleepless Japanese artists of Göteborg.
http://frangoteborgtilljapan.blogspot.com
Naoko Sakata Trio combines three unique, individual musical voices that embrace the listener in landscapes of beauty and exploding improvisations. Contrasts between simplicity and complexity, tenderness to natural outbursts are exposed within the trio’s energy. Their repertoire has its fundamental grounding in free improvisation which is expressed within and throughout their original compositions. Naoko Sakata, Japanese born pianist, moved to Gothenburg in Sweden in 2008 to study at the Academy of Music and Drama at Gothenburg University. In 2009 it was here this trio was formed together with Anton Blomgren on double bass and Johan Birgenius on drums. In that same year, the trio won the chance to represent Sweden at the Young Nordic Jazz Comets 2009 held in Oslo. There, the jury was quoted as describing the Naoko Sakata Trio as: "A profiled group with authority, flow, maturity and beauty in playing as well as compositions". It was also at this event that Naoko won the prestigious ‘Best Soloist’ prize as a result of ‘her excellent and mature playing’. In 2010 she was also nominated for Swedish Radio "Jazzcat" (Jazzkatten) award for ‘New-Comer of the Year’. The trio has performed at various clubs and festivals such as Nefertiti Jazz Club, Gothenburg, Fasching Jazz Club, Stockholm, the 12 points Festival and Vossa Jazz Festival. (taken from www.myspace.com/naokosakatatrio) They have released an album titled "Kaleidoscope" this winter, and it was received very well, specially in Japan, where the album is constantly on top Jazz album chart that includes foreign Jazz artists. Naoko Sakata Trio was nominated for Jazzcat 2011, and she has won the "New-comer of the year" this time around. Congrats to Naoko Sakata Trio, and we are proud to have you guys in our performance!!!
We have decided that the ticket price will be 280kr for our performance. And it will be sold at the box office and online soon.
Inside this price, there is 25kr ticket printing/administration fee included. It was necessary to assure you a good seat in fare, equal way without having you wait infront of the theater for long time. The rest of money, 255kr will go to donation to Japan. We have updated more info on "how we donate" on our website.
There will also be donation box at the theater, so if you liked the performance, or simply want to contribute more than 280kr, you are most welcome! For donation , no card is accepted, so please make sure to bring some cash with you. This is a very safe and good opportunity to donate for a good cause.
We will release more information on where to buy tickets, upon starting of ticket sales very soon.
Soichi Matsumoto / Quadroptica
Quadroptica is led by London based video designer/artist, Soichi Matsumoto. Soichi started as a freelance video maker/editor after completing Masters degree in Digital Moving Image at London Guildhall University(London Metropolitan) in 2001. Quadroptica was set up by Soichi and his colleagues as one off VJ outfit but the success of first gig leading to more offers and newly gained passion in live visuals has kept Quadroptica going ever since. Performing countless shows at festivals,clubs,events across the globe. In recent years, Quadroptica has expanded from live visual to video design and have been working for concerts, events, and fashion shows.
(taken from www.quadtoptica.com)
Soichi is a brother of Kyoko Matsumoto, a dancer of GöteborgsOperans Balett, and they will collaborate to create a special work dedicated for victims of the earthquake and tsunami.
more info of Soichi Matsumoto/Quadroptica at www.quadroptica.com
Sandra Sumie Nagano hails from Göteborg, she is a singer-songwriter who mostly focuses in Acoustic-folk style music. She has been playing in concerts worldwide, and has collaborated with artists such as Hector Projector, and Beat Ventriloquists among others.
For Från Göteborg till Japan,
she will be playing with her band, specially formed for this occasion.
The band member includes;
Kajsa Persson(cello), Max Lindahl(trumpet) and Emma Strååt(violin).
Sumie is a sister of Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon, who is also a participating artist for our performance.
We finally have dates, time and the location for the show.
The show will be held at; Stenhammarsalen i Konserthuset (Götaplatsen 8, Göteborg) 27th of April, 2011 19:30 start
Spread the word, please!! And the same time, we would like to announce new artists who will perform in the show.
We have some of the best Japanese artists in the world in this performance!
If you like what you see on the link above, send the information to your friends, and mark on your calender! You can see great artists live, and contribute to a good cause.
We have a refined new logo!! It's much more sophisticated, isn't it??
It was re-designed by Kumiko Onishi, a Japanese graphic designer living in Gothenburg.
Hopefully, you will see this logo everywhere in the city soon!!
