Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Pair’s concert to benefit library in Japan, 2 in state
FAYETTEVILLE — Nobody wants a disaster to hit close to home. But when it does, the desire to help is natural.
Tomoko Kashiwagi and Miho Oda-Sakon watched as their home and their home- away- from- home were hit by disaster, first as an earthquake and resulting tsunami hit Japan in March 2011, and then more recently, as a tornado ripped through Mayflower in April.
As classically trained musicians, they knew that a benefit concert would be their best way to contribute and set out to raise funds for both areas to rebuild.
“This is our fourth year for the benefit and we want to make sure we reach as much audience as we can,” says Kashiwagi, piano instructor at the University of Arkansas. “We just thought we needed a lot more audience to support what we believe in.”
“I’m a violinist, so that’s my one and only skill to use to ask people for donations,” says Oda-Sakon, artist in residence at the UA’s Suzuki Music School of Arkansas, who started the benefit at the request of a pastor at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville. “The first concert, we had an artist in printmaking make the poster and another lady demonstrate a tea ceremony.”
They harnessed the talents of Japanese families in the area to present an event that gives Arkansans a taste of Japanese culture while being able to donate to the long and complicated process of rebuilding.
The challenge with keeping an event like this alive is the combination of time that has passed — three years now for the tsunami
— and the distance. Not many Arkansans have visited Japan since the earthquake and tsunami claimed 18,000 lives, and so haven’t seen the slow progress in returning life to normal.
“It’s hard to imagine,” Kashiwagi says. “It is the other side of the world. Some people who haven’t been to the other country may not feel as close to this cause.”
The gravity of the event still speaks for itself. More than two years later, 300,000 people were still living in temporary housing.
“It’s been a long time, but still there is no recovery,” Kashiwagi says. “It’s easy to [support] when it’s immediately after disaster but it takes such a long time to recover … that it’s over the years that we need to keep supporting them.”
In addition to the piano and violin concert, silent auction and dessert, this year’s event will include more recent pictures of the affected areas of Japan and guest speakers who have seen the devastation in person to provide a clearer picture of the need there.
Proceeds from the concert will go to the Tokyo Children’s Library and the libraries of Mayflower and Vilonia, which were ravaged by a tornado on April 27.
“This year half of the proceeds will go to Mayflower and Vilonia libraries because this benefit concert is focusing on rebuilding children’s libraries,” says Oda-Sakon. Donations will go primarily to buy e-books, which can be distributed and reused more easily.
“Nowadays they are very popular for children and those public libraries in various areas,” says Dede Berger, Books for Tomorrow event coordinator. “When they receive an e-book they can distribute it many places to [stretch] that use of money.”
Oda-Sakon has played a number of benefits for the Tokyo Children’s Library, and her effort to help rebuild locations in smaller towns surrounding it has been in the works for years.
Having a public library that brings pride to Northwest Arkansas residents, she felt a children’s library would be an easy case to advocate.
“There are many people at the Fayetteville Public Library,” she says. “It’s a very nice place, especially for children, a very good place to use imagination and create the world. [Having a children’s library] is one way to escape from their sad or terrible experience in Japan.”
Although Kashiwagi and Oda-Sakon are classical musicians, the concert’s music lineup is a wild card. It includes popular pieces of music, such as the “William Tell Overture,” the Razorbacks fight song and crowd favorites including “Flight of the Bumblebee.”
To keep the audience engaged and excited, crowd members will be choosing the music from a “menu” set list.
“We ask the audience to choose pieces for us,” Kashiwagi says. “We love to make our moment with audience. It’s not just a concert where people come in and have to be quiet.”
From the appetizer section, the audience can peruse a variety of options and choose an introductory piece they want to hear. Similarly, they will choose from the main menu and dessert portions. A moderator will help ferry the message and keep the concert on track.
For Kashiwagi and Oda-Sakon, it’s a refreshing change from the responsibilities of performing classical music.
“These little pieces are fun, definitely not part of our regular repertoire,” Kashiwagi says. They are “something we’ve previously learned or heard [that] we could tell the audience enjoyed.”
It creates a more energetic give and take between audience and performer, but if they can help their neighbors, Kashiwagi and Oda-Sakon say, that’s more than enough for them.
“There is only so much we can do,” Kashiwagi says. “But this cause is very close to our heart because it’s Japan and Arkansas is like our second home, which is equally close to [us].”
Books for Tomorrow will take place 3-6 p.m. Nov. 16 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 224 N. East Ave., Fayetteville. For more information, call (479) 966-6481.