Tom Hutchinson Tours Japan

Fresh from his victory at the European Brass Band Championships leading the Cory Band, Tom Hutchinson embarked on his first solo tour of Japan. The Besson Artist began his trip by travelling to Tokyo to prepare for a concert as guest soloist with the Northern Crystal Band as part of the British Brass Festival.

Whilst in Tokyo Tom had a bit of free time to try and adjust to the time zone and was able to visit some of the main tourist attractions such as the famous Tokyo Tower, the Emperor’s Palace and Asakusa, home of the five storey pagoda. Once recovered from the Jet lag, Tom began the serious business of the tour, starting with a visit to Shinkotoni-kita Elementary School to conduct and tutor their brass band rehearsal. Recounting the experience tom said, “Towards the end of the rehearsal I was asked to play a short excerpt of their music by virtually every member of the band, all 50 of them, even the tuba players! The kids all wanted selfies, swarmed for autographs and literally dragged me outside for photographs. They were incredibly sweet and I felt very humbled.”

The next stop was a performance with Vivid Brass before travelling on to play with the Akatsuki Brass Society as part of only their second ever concert. Tom also managed to fit in a visit to the Senzuko British Brass Band at Senzuko College where he met with Professor Yamamoto, Japan’s leading brass band expert. He sat in the college band’s rehearsal, amongst the 125 students and was able to give tips and pointers to the young musicians around him about the repertoire. Tom commented, “I’ve seen so many talented young students throughout the tour, who have great teachers, many of whom have had some experience of British Brass Banding, none more so than the leading figure himself Prof. Yamamoto. It was also lovely to be able to meet up with my old friend and tuba player Kaz Kuono. We spent 18 months playing together at Cory and he looked after me very well. He accompanied me to all my concerts, showed me the best places to eat and drink and even found me a karaoke booth to practise in when I was told I couldn’t practise in my hotel room!”

Tom was kept suitably busy between visits and concert performances giving master-classes, recitals and of course signing copies of his extremely successful solo CD, In Principal. Even after experiencing an earthquake on his final night in Japan, measuring a scary 5.6 on the Richter scale, Tom had nothing but fond memories of the tour stating, “What an incredible place! I’ve met some amazing people, played with some great bands and eaten some crazy things! I’d like to thank Buffet Group Japan and Buffet Group UK for their support. I hope to be invited back again soon.”

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