Noriko's Small Room Part 1 | Why I decided to become a professional

Hello everyone who is viewing JPCMAG. My name is Noriko Tsukagoshi and I am a marimba player.

I am very honored to have the opportunity to write this column. Thank you very much for your support!

Some of you may be hearing my name for the first time, so I'd like to briefly introduce myself...

As a marimba player, I am invited by concert halls, public facilities, orchestras and organizations all over the country to give recitals, concerts, concerto collaborations, and outreach performances. We have received offers from overseas and have performed in various countries. We have also appeared on many media such as TV and magazines.

My encounter with music began before I could remember. My mother was a piano teacher, so before I knew it I was learning piano and violin.

I also had to learn many other things every day, so even when I was in elementary school, I had a regular commute to work in Tokyo. (Since I don't go to school, it was not a "commuting" period but a "commuting" period...!)

When I got home from elementary school, I had at least one lesson to do every day, so I almost didn't have time to play with friends, but I was able to learn a lot from lessons and had friends to work with, so my elementary school life couldn't have been more fulfilling. I am deeply grateful to my parents for creating that environment and for always supporting me.

I was particularly absorbed in classical ballet, which I started doing in third grade. When I got home from school, I left my school bag at the entrance, grabbed my bag containing my pointe shoes, and headed straight to ballet class, then took the last train home. After that, I ate dinner, fought off sleepiness, did my school homework, and practiced piano etc. I received good results in ballet competitions and received many compliments, but due to a foot injury, I decided to quit ballet and discovered marimba right after.

Due to the influence of my sister who is 4 years older than me, I decided to go to Kunitachi College of Music High School of Music! I decided from an early age that I wanted to take the entrance exam, and originally planned to take the entrance exam as a piano major, but since I was around 12 years old when I discovered marimba after quitting ballet, I decided to decide as soon as possible whether to major in piano or percussion and study for the entrance exam, so I decided to take the percussion (marimba) entrance exam.

 After entering the Kunitachi College of Music, I was selected to participate in many on-campus concerts and was able to meet top-class performers and composers.

 I went to Kunitachi College of Music, and in my second year of university I started receiving concert offers from outside the university, which made me want to study music more broadly and deeply.I put aside for the time being the feelings that practicing is hard, painful, physically aches, tiring, painful, etc., and made practicing and studying my top priority above all else in my life. To this day, I have been completely absorbed in learning from live performances, experiencing and studying not only music but also many other arts, and learning how to speak at concerts.I have taken lessons not only from percussion and marimba players but also musicologists and researchers from all over the world, and even though I am not directly involved in performing, I have participated in opportunities to learn the presentation techniques of executives from top companies. (It was very confusing lol)

In recent years, I have often received inquiries from students and young performers about various concerns, and the content of their concerns is so overwhelming that even I nod my head. There are some things that still bother me.

In this column, I would like to share my experiences in a fun, deep, and interesting way (?), and sometimes even include some small talk, based on my experiences, such as what is important when playing music, what it means to sing with a marimba, what it means to sing with a marimba, how to make a living out of performing, etc., based on those concerns.

I would be happy if I could connect with many people and make the marimba world even more exciting!

Now, this is the topic that you can say is the first thing you are asked when you are interviewed by a magazine or the like.

“What made me want to become a professional.”

Actually, I wanted to get a job after graduating from university, and I had been thinking about getting a job since I was in my third year of university.But before I get too busy looking for a job, I wanted to listen to marimba performances by people my age around the world, so I thought, ``Let's enter an international competition for the first and last time!''『2nd Belgian International Marimba Competition』I received it.

I was honored to receive 2nd place in the competition, which attracted over 100 people from all over the world, and it was decided that I would be invited as a guest artist to the competition that would be held three years later.

Don't miss out on such an honorable opportunity! So, I put off getting a job for a little while and continued studying for a guest appearance three years later, but if I was going to do it, I would put all my heart and soul into it. I wanted to improve my level even more after three years, so in parallel with my studies at Kunitachi College of Music, where I was attending at the time, I also entered other international competitions, frequently went to overseas master classes and academies, and studied hard every day.

I received good reviews at various competitions, and as a result of this I started getting more concert offers.JapanLet's leave! ” and went to America to study. I was exposed to various genres of music including jazz and tango, and while I was studying abroad, I was approached by Sony Music Direct to make my CD debut, and I was also able to connect with the music agency I currently belong to (AMATI Co., Ltd.).

In particular, winning the 22nd Idemitsu Music Award shortly after returning from studying abroad was a huge turning point in my life.

The long tradition and prestigious Idemitsu Music Award^※1is an award that honors great musicians in the classical music world. Since no percussion or marimba player had ever won an award before, I thought it was presumptuous to even aspire to this award, and that it was just a pipe dream. It was written on the award certificate that I received at the time of receiving the award.

``We highly value your talent and present this award to you in hopes of making great strides and improving your skills.''

When I saw those words, it was one of the big reasons I decided to continue studying as a musician for the rest of my life.

『Time is limited, effort is infinite, and regret is eternal.』

There may be many things that you get lost in, and you may have endless worries, but at times like these, if you try hard to do what is right in front of you, a path may open up for you! (That's what I'm telling you!)

Next time, we are planning to deliver the theme "How to become a marimba soloist"!

◇ ◇ ◇

Noriko TsukagoshiProfile

Marimba player Shinko Tsukagoshi Official Website
You can check various information about Mr. Tsukagoshi, such as his profile, schedule, diary, etc.!