British Open Champions Tredegar recently welcomed a group of talented Japanese euphonium players to their South Wales bandroom.

Masterclass

Led by their celebrated tutor Shoichiro Hokozono, the nine students from the Tokyo College of Music and the Senzoku College of Music enjoyed a masterclass workshop from principal euphonium Matthew White as well as a fish and chip tea before each had the opportunity to sit in with the band as they were being filmed for a potential BBC Wales documentary series later in the year.

Shoichiro was also delighted to accept the invitation from Tredegar MD Ian Porthouse to perform ‘Benedictus’ from ‘The Armed Man’ with the band.

Language school

The students were in Wales to study English for a week at the Celtic Language School in Cardiff, and used a recent performance by Matthew to help them with their course work.

After their visit a number also expressed a desire to hopefully return to study at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where they also met up with Dr Robert Childs and David Childs during the week.

Willing

Matthew White told 4BR that he was delighted to be able to work with such responsive young players: "We had a great time. It was a real honour to meet up with Shoichiro Hokozono and to be able to work with such a great group of willing students."

In response Shoichiro told 4BR: "I must thank Tredegar Band for their kind invitation and to Matthew who gave the students such a wonderful masterclass. We have had a great time in Wales — and have certainly enjoyed the food and the music!"

We all had a wonderful evening together — with the players all keen to meet and talk about banding and to have their picture taken with the famous British Open ShieldMD, Ian Porthouse

Wonderful evening

Tredegar MD Ian Porthouse also thanked Shoichiro: "We all had a wonderful evening together — with the players all keen to meet and talk about banding and to have their picture taken with the famous British Open Shield.

Our thanks go to Shoko Morimoto for organising the event with us and especially to Shoichiro and the students.”