Funabashi mus Japanese youth orchestra booked to play on North Shore Jan-Christian Sorensen Contributing Writer A junior Japanese orchestra is about to get a crash course in Canadian culture. The Funabashi junior orchestra will travel from the Land of the Rising Sun te the land where it sets when their plane touch- es down in Vancouver on Tuesda While it marks the first time the Funabashi junior orchestra has come to the area, it's one of many Japanese bands and orchestras that have been visiting in the past few years. Next Friday night the orchestra will host a free concert at Sutherland Secondary at 7:30 p.m. The Funabashi Junior Orchestra was established in 198] as the junior counterpart. of the city’s larger Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Funab. City is located in Chiba Prefecture, just vast of Tokyo. In Japan, it’s common tor junior high and high schools to have a primarily-woodwind orchestra, but not so conmmon to feature an orchestra such as this one, complete with percussion, brass and strings. he orchestra members — 104 musicians and an entourage of 18 chaperones — begin their tour of the Vancouver area sith a tour of Chinatown, Robson Street and Stanley Park on Tuesday. On Wednesday the orchestra will perform at the Ps National Exhibition before beginning a whirlwind tour of North Shore sites. Thursday will find the group participating ina cultural exchange at the Squamish Nation Ree Centre and taking in tours of the Capilano Fish Hatchery and the Capilano WS Suspension Bridge before their concert at Sutherland Aug. 25. Retore they tly back to Funabashi on the following Monday. the musicians will also see the sights at Shannon Falls and Whistler Village before a farewell party and pertormance at the Lucas Centre in North Vancouver. Coordinating, the visits is North Vancouver resident: Yumi Sude, who has cngineered several of these types of musical change programs, Sude got the idea te import the Funabashi junior orchestra from: a Japanese teacher she met when another orchestra trom Chiba Prefecture paid a visit to the area four vears ago. Waving the baton is conductor Jun Ando, an accomplished vocalist and musician who bean his career as 2 music teacher ata high school in Chiba Prefecture and has a reputation as the top junior high school conductor in Japan. He has led his school orchestra to nine gold standards and eight silver standards at the annual Afl-Japan musical competi- tron. The orchestra will showcase its wares with a selection of Strauss and Dvorak but also traditional Japanese arrangements. The Funabashi visitors will have a turn at showeasing their country when the Suthedand school band travels there in February for a large musical festival. The Carson Graham school band also took to the skies for isit to the Funabashi area fast winter and a contingent from Handsworth is slated for a 2002 trip overseas. Sudo has also been approached by other area schools inter- ested in participating in a similar musical exchange program. She works with former North Vancouver School District 4-4 assistant superintendent John Montgomery to arrange the vi its. “The Japanese come here and they're so. surprised. erything is sv different here,” said Sudo, who added that what the visitors find most welcoming is the outgoing attitude Theatre closed since July From page3 first group to perform at the reopened theatre. “tv's dreadfully unfortu- nate,” said Mitchell, who had hoped to open in September with oa performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and a tribute to the ate local com- poser Jean Coulthard. “We wanted to be the first ones in after the renovations, They told us we were very sak go for the 22 of September.” CLYDE Mitchell will steer Sinfonia’s new season. ee ee ee ee wm eens 1 ae 9 99 ry 5 fae Great Canadian 4 a H @ii CHANGE Since 1978 LTO. ] 00 H SAL OFF retro canada 10Ww30 H Plus taxes and emia fees * With thus coupon Far inost veluckes ( DPEH MONSSAT O65 SUM. 105 = TEXPRER SE PTE MORA 7, 7000) , Conpetitors: coapons ADGITIONAL-OISCOUNT WITH” fi + worth tere here!