Credit: Ali Sahib, Chronicle.lu
On Sunday 30 March 2025, 40 young students aged eleven to seventeen from the Nishinomiya Boys and Girls Choir, based in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture, visited the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg.
The main idea was to facilitate a musical exchange with members of Pueri Cantores Luxembourg, as part of the Japanese choir’s European tour. For their part, 45 members of the Pueri Cantores choir will embark on their Japan tour from Tuesday 8 to Friday 18 April 2025. During the exchange on Sunday, each choir presented songs from their respective countries and came together for a performance of the Japanese song "Sakura".
The songs sung by the Nishinomiya choir included:
- Aizu-bandaisan
- Kusatsubushi
- It's a small world
- Country Roads
- Rotating Seasons
- 2 songs from Kodály
- Sakura
When interviewed by Chronicle.lu, a spokesperson for Nishinomiya said "It was fun to sing together because genre of songs and voice parts were different. I was glad to see that the members enjoyed the interaction with the Luxembourgish choir. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Nimax and his wife. I sincerely hope they all enjoy visiting Japan."
"We are happy to welcome the Nishinomiya Boys and Girls Choir to Luxembourg and for the Pueri Cantores Choir to go to Japan. Cultural youth exchanges are an important project for the development of international friendships, and the language of music knows no barriers. We are convinced that these encounters will contribute significantly to further development of relationship between the two countries and to broadening the horizons of the younger members. The Embassy wishes both choirs a fantastic stay in each other's guest country," the Embassy of Japan in Luxembourg shared in a statement.
IK
Updated to include the quote from the Nishinomiya choir spokesperson.
