Today we visited the grave of Fr. Tony Glynn. Tony Glynn and his brother Paul contributed enormously to the post-war reconcilliation between Australia and Japan. As the Isabella a cappella choir’s hometown of Lismore was also home to Tony and Paul Glynn, the choir has always strived to communicate the story and the history of the special […]
Day 3 – Yamatotakada
Today we travelled to Lismore’s sister city in Japan – Yamatotakada, Nara. In the morning we performed at a shared concert with the Japanese classical guitarist Masa Makayama. Masa is a very talented performer who always presents a really interesting program of solo guitar music. It was great to share the stage again with Masa and […]
Day 2 – Takarazuka
Today we travelled from Gifu to Nagoya and then to Shin-Osaka and finally to Takarazuka – a town in the Hyogo prefecture that is reasonably close to both Kobe and Osaka with much of the population commuting to these large nearby cities for work. Our Japanese tour organiser Tazuko McLaren has family and many friends in Takarazuka […]
Day 1 – Minokamo City, Gifu
Today we took the bullet train (Shinkansen) from Shinagawa to Nagoya then onwards to Minoota station in Minokamo, Gifu. Isabella a cappella has been visiting Minokamo since 2003 so it was a nice place to begin the 2015 tour. During the 2013 tour, Gifu was the place where half the choir finally succumbed to the winter flu […]