Passion, Guidance, Determination, and Success - A Reflection to the Movie "Golden Orchestra!&qu

Couple days ago I watched the Japanese movie “Golden Orchestra!" recommended by my friend. I enjoyed the movie very much. The movie is first released on November 11, 2016. It is a comedy with some romance between the adult characters, and a quasi “Romeo and Juliet” between the children of the two rival concertmasters. It is inspiring, a good movie for music students, teachers, and especially retirees. (Watch movie trailer here – with English sub)

The music performed in the film includes (examples from YouTube are attached):

• Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, 5th movement

• Elgar, Pomp and Circumstance March

• Vivaldi, Spring, 1st movement

• Tchaikovsky, Symphony No.6, 1st movement

• Dvorak, New World Symphony, 2nd movement

• Beethoven, Symphony No.6, 1st movement

The plot is about Chizuru, a new math teacher at Umega High School. She played violin when she was in the high school. One day she attends an amateur orchestra performance at the local music hall. She is impressed by the performance and wants to join the orchestra. However, there are 2 orchestras in town - Umega Symphony Orchestra and Umega Philharmonic Orchestra - and Chizuru mistakenly enrolls Umega Symphony Orchestra which consists of elderly people. The members are thrilled to have a young person join their group. Very soon they decide to have Chizuru to be the conductor of their orchestra.

On the other hand, Chizuru is troubled by the orchestra's low standard, poor performance, and members’ age. The rehearsal is just another social event for those retirees. Behind the members’ backs she practices very hard and gets into Umega Philharmonic Orchestra, which performs professionally and has more young musicians, but quickly Chizuru losses her passion for music. The orchestra conductor keeps shouting “Did you practice? Perhaps you need to practice harder!” without any instruction provided, and the members are disrespectful to each other.

When Chizuru decides to give up her music, the Symphony Orchestra members use many tricks to trick her not to. After experienced the Philharmonic Orchestra, she realizes why the Symphony Orchestra can’t perform well:

• The members don’t have any idea how the pieces they practice should sound like. Therefore, they can’t realize their own performance error.

• They don’t have proper instruction, guidance, and practice method on each instrumental part.

• Everyone has their own reason to join the orchestra, but they don’t have a concrete, realistic goal.

While they are working on these weaknesses, other helps come. The warmness and courage of old members attract new musicians to join their orchestra. In this journey, Chizuru learns about others’ passion and determination in music. The most significant reason is music reminds our loved ones and the memory we shared. Finally, they present the first concert of Umega Symphony Orchestra with an unexpected accident.

This movie points out several crucial keys in learning the music.

1. Having a passion for perform an instrument is a good start, but proper guidance and constructive criticism is needed to achieve your goal. "Keep practicing and you'll get it" will not help you to improve. You need strategies for solving a problem.

2. There will be hard times when you are learning a difficult song and that will frustrate you and maybe make you want to give up. Don’t be discouraged, because

3. The success tastes sweet!

4. Enjoy the learning and performance. Be supportive to each other, but criticize when necessary.

Finally, I want to say don’t stop your passion for music because of your age. You don’t need to become a pro. The key is that you enjoy it and continue to play. Music makes our life more colorful and will keep our brain healthy!

#MusicEducation #Parenting #MusicAppreciation