The conductor of the Plovdiv choir “Detska Kitka” about the emotions and impressions of the tour in Japan

Ms. Deliradeva, tell us how the tour went? Are the children happy, how did they welcome you?

The tour was very interesting, long and challenging, with a lot of emotions and so new things that happen to us for the first time as a line-up and as people. I think the children are very happy because they had the opportunity to really go to the other side of the world and see that some things are the same as here, for example human relationships, maybe in a slightly different light, but actually everyone is human . They had the opportunity in the families of the Japanese to feel a little of their way of life, everyday life, and thus even immerse themselves in their school system. Because when we went, the Japanese school year was ending at the same time. It ends the penultimate week of March, then they have a week off, which included our concerts, and from April 1st their new school year begins. Somehow, in a different way, things are decided with them. From what I know from the children’s parents themselves, who have been very active following the Facebook coverage of our tour, they are all very, very excited that their children experienced what they actually did in Japan, namely these 7 performances in 9 days. And they had the opportunity to meet their peers from another culture, to see how they live. Japan is a rather curious country for Bulgarians and somehow we have all heard how interesting it is there, how exotic it is. But it’s different when you immerse yourself in the atmosphere on the spot. In the beginning, it seems to you that everything is very regular and in fact there is nothing that attracts you. But the truth is that as time goes by, both I and the children I meet, and they themselves say that they appreciate more and more what happened to them.

Actually, how did they receive them, you were in school and in a Home for the elderly, right? How were the children welcomed? What concert halls did you sing in?

We had several types of participation. We had high-profile performances in Yonago and Tokorozawa, in the large cultural halls of the cities, as well as in the Bulgarian embassy in Tokyo. But in addition, we had such side performances, one of which was at a Home for the elderly, the other was a concert in support of the victims, it’s not exactly the victims, but the destruction of the Ishikawa earthquake in January of this year. And the concert at the embassy was also dedicated to this theme, it was a charity concert. And we also had a very nice turnout, there were more outside appearances planned, but due to the weather being cold and very rainy on the day in question, they were cancelled. This sympathetic participation was in the steps of one of the MOLs in the city. There, in fact, because there were very pleasant acoustics, when the children heard each other’s voices, it became pleasant for them. They sang very well and had a great audience. Some of them had come for the concert, but some were just passing by because they had shopped at the mall. They received great applause and more. Our hosts told us that they had called to order tickets for the next day’s concert, where we had an audience of 800 people.

It was very, very interesting!

In fact, what language did you sing in, did you mostly sing Bulgarian songs?

I had consulted beforehand with my colleagues from Japan about what would appeal to the Japanese public. And they told me that it was best to construct the program as I thought the choir would appear in the best light, and so I did. I know quite well the capabilities of the “Children’s Wrist” choir, although it is composed of teenage girls, young girls, it has quite serious artistic and technical merits, which at such moments I use. And in fact, I have selected songs that are effective, but at the same time they are difficult to show to some extent what kind of creativity Bulgarian composers have for this type of compositions. So there were Bulgarian songs, there were also Japanese ones, because of course we were in Japan and together we performed common songs on Japanese. There were also those from the whole world, from the world’s choral literature, which are very well positioned in the general dramaturgy of the concerts. For example, our favorite song that comes from Canada is a song that called “Whata Ne”, it is intended to imitate sounds from the Lake Ontario region where the Iroquois Indians live. And in fact, the song itself does not have a melody so much as an imitation of birds, of wind, of rain, of the calls of an Indian tribe. This song really impressed the Yonago crowd, I could hear them cheering behind me while we were singing. So the program was broadly speaking diverse. Of course, a little more Bulgarian, but also in the second part all kinds of songs – from Canada, America, Norway, Denmark and Japan.

Were there any strange situations that will stick in your mind from this tour? Something different? Any incident, anything more interesting happened while you were there?

It was all interesting and curious. There were, of course, minor fouls, who forgot their uniform in the subway, who didn’t take it from home, these are such extreme situations. We even had a slight time difference with the planes. We had to fly at one hour to Yonago, we had a meeting with the mayor, it turned out that our ticket was at a later time than the meeting with the mayor, and we negotiated on the spot at the airport for at least some people to go so that meet the mayor. So I would maybe mention this as curious because we put a lot of extreme effort into making this event happen. Which, we never understood, how it happened organizationally that we had another time for the plane. But otherwise, generally speaking, for such a long trip, I wouldn’t say there were any particular, stressful situations to mention very carefully, no, I don’t think so. Rather, if I have to point out something as interesting, it is the interaction between our children and the Japanese children. What care they had taken so that we could gather together, play together, sing together, communicate together. It was a very special moment and I think I will personally have a deep impression and a long time from our stay there. They cooked together, dressed us in kimonos, took pictures, origami together, wrote our names with hieroglyphs or the two Japanese alphabets, Katakana and Hiragana. In general, there were such things that are not exactly part of the concert activity, but in fact greatly complement the whole experience. Because only appearing in front of an audience is one part of all that happened to us. What we saw, people’s homes, their wonderful arrangements of trees, plants, bushes, everything is arranged, trimmed, shaped, cleaned, polished. It was just a very nice experience for all of us, such care for everything.

Great! Surely the children were able to make friends with the Japanese children?

A large part of them succeeded, despite the language barrier, now with Google translate they can understand each other more actively. But in fact, what they learned about each other is perhaps the first step to something further. For example, the Japanese were very surprised, they thought that they were the only ones who took off their shoes at home. And when we told them that we were doing it too, although not in the way they were, they were extremely impressed. Something that surprised us. After this song that I told you, which is the sound picture, in it the children play with their mouths because they resemble the sound of the birds, how the birds sing. The Japanese said, “But how do you play with your mouth, we can’t play with our mouth, no one teaches us this skill”. We were quite puzzled as to where along the way we teach children to whistle so that they can produce such exquisite trills. So that was curious! I don’t know, there’s probably a lot more to say, I just thought of it.

Your story was quite interesting! Thanks. Do you have any other tours coming up soon? Will there be one?

We don’t currently have a tour planned. But we do travel once a year, that thing was interrupted by the covid pandemic, but now there’s no reason not to. Even more, considering that only half of the concert team traveled with us, the other half stayed in Plovdiv. We always ensure that the children have the opportunity to perform in Plovdiv, in the country and abroad, because this gives the full palette of the concert activity. So we think there will be, it’ll just be in the second part of the season.