Music on Thursdays

Thursday 10th July 2014
12.30 Lunchtime

Leatherhead Methodist Church


  Yuhka Nagai, violin
  Tokino Kaga, piano


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Supported by:
Leatherhead Concert &
Arts Society

Programme



Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
Nigun Improvisation, No 2
(from Baal Shem, 1923)

Hikaru Hayashi (1931-2012)
Six Pieces,  小品六つ(Syohin Muttsu)
    Ⅰ Lotus Blossom
    Ⅱ Love Song
    ⅢThe month of March
    Ⅳ Counting Song
    ⅤThe Crow
    Ⅵ Grass Mowing
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Yuhka Nagai, violin

Yuka Nagai, violin

 Japanese violinist, Yuhka Nagai is currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music with Prof Mayumi Fujikawa. Yuhka has BMus and MA degrees from Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo, Japan. Later, she obtained a teaching qualification and worked at a local high school as a part-time music teacher. She also worked at several music schools as a violin teacher while she was a masters student. At the same time, Yuhka was selected to play in Musashino Academia Symphony Orchestra as leader for 3 years, between 2007 and 2010.

 In addition, she played in several chamber ensembles in Duo, Piano trio and Piano quartet. As a violinist with the Piano quartet “Blüte”she won third prize at the competition for chamber music and later this ensemble’s recital was sponsored by Tokyo Art Centre.

Currently she is been taking a course for the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM Diploma). She has been teaching a number of violin students regularly with her passionate enthusiasm towards students and accumulating her performance experiences in the UK.

Yuhka is performing in two lunchtime concerts. The first at Leatherhead Methodist Church (her 2nd visit to Leatherhead's lunchtime concert series). The other is at All Saint’s Church, High Wycombe.

Yuhka is devoted to playing music, focusing on the relation between her heart, mind and body. She enjoys introducing music by the Japanese composer Hikaru Hayashi to a wider UK audience - which was greatly appreciated by the Leatherhead audience when she played for them earlier this season. Her characteristic violin sound, especially on the G string, is the result of her studies in Japan and London.

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Japanese Duo

Concert of contrast and coherence
captures poignant mood-swings,
from dark and anguished
to gentle, dreamy, joyful.
Violin and piano
communicate with interplay and sensitivity:
tumbling, percussive chords alternate
with lyrical legato,
passionate pizzicatos
blend with rippling arpeggios.
Jewish, Japanese, Norwegian
(Bloch, Hikaru Hayashi, Grieg),
integrate a special character,
interpretation unique in music –
reflected in their flowing dresses,
turquoise and green;
and female Oriental features,
emphasised by different statures,
enhance our sound experience;
harmonious and holistic balance.

Peter Horsfield 11/7/2014

Inspired by the lunchtime concert performed at Leatherhead Methodist Church on 10th July 2014
by Yuhka Nagai, violin; and Tokino Kaga, piano.

You will find more of Peter Horsfield's music-inspired poetry on our Poetry Page

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Violin Sonata No 3 in C minor, Op 45 (1886-87)
    I   Allegro molto ed appassionato
    II  Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza
    III Allegro animato

Rialto Lounge will be selling sandwiches and drinks in the church after the concert.

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Tokino Kaga, piano

Tokino Kaga, piano


Tokino Kaga was born in Tokyo, Japan in a musical family. She commenced her studies in music in her early age. At fifteen years old she came to United Kingdom and attended Junior Academy of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a bursary. In 2004, she was accepted at London's Royal Academy of Music and studied with Vanessa Laturche and Pascal Nemirovski and studied chamber music with Clifford Benson. After completing her Bachelor of Music in piano solo performance, she then continued to the Master of Arts programme at the Royal Academy of Music again studying with Pascal Nemirovski and chamber music studies with Nicola Eimer. For her final recital she received a distinction and she completed the MA with merit in June 2011.

Tokino participated in the Evian International Piano course and Nancy European Master classes in France in the summers of 2007–2010.

Tokino won the first prize in solo Baroque repertoire in the Mid-Somerset Festival in 2000 and was also chosen as a finalist for Bath Young Musician of the Year in that year. She was also a two-year finalist for the Delius competitions in 2007 and 2008, organised by Delius society, forming a violin duo. She has been playing in concerts both in UK and Japan as a soloist and a chamber musician.













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Concert at Home

If you cannot be with us at the lunchtime concert
you can enjoy a similar Concert at Home by
clicking the buttons below:

First, here is Joshua Bell's recording of Bloch's Nigun:

bloch  -  nigun

This performance of Grieg's third Violin Sonata is given by Kyung-wha Chung, accompanied by Robert Macdonald:

Greig  -  violin sonata no 3

Yuhka Nagai is the only violinist we know who brings Hikaru Hayashi's music to a Western audience.

One day youtube will catch up, but at the time of this concert we were not able to find comparable recordings of his works. To read more about the composer please click on his name above.

LMC - map

Directions to
 Leatherhead Methodist Church

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