The is a professional

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

in the city of

Nishinomiya 270px, Nishinomiya City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center 1985 270px, Hirota Shrine is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 484,368 in 218,948 households and a population density ...

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Founded concurrently with the

Hyogo Performing Arts Center The is a performing arts center in the city of Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station operated by Hankyu Corporation. The Center was opened in 2005 to mark the ten-year anniversary of the Great Hanshin earth ...

in 2005, the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra (HPAC Orchestra) is under the leadership of

Yutaka Sado is a Japanese conductor. Biography While still in school, Sado obtained a position in the Kansai Nikikai, a Japanese school of opera, where he had the opportunity to work with the New Japan Philharmonic and the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, learni ...

History

In 2002, Sado Yutaka became the artistic director of Hyogo Performing Arts Center. He held auditions for over 900 in 13 worldwide locations after advertising for talent, under the age of 35 in Asia, the United States, and France. He ended up with 48 members with most of them Japanese and an average age of 27. They were assembled only 2 months before opening so in order to build cohesion, they stayed in the same apartment building (owned by the prefecture).

Performances

The orchestra gives roughly 120 performances per season, many of which are at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center. These include the Subscription Series (three performances per week of one program), Masterworks Concerts (one performance per week), Children's and Family Concerts, Recital Series (featuring select members of the orchestra), School "Waku waku" concerts (performed with narrator, these concerts demonstrate each instrument individually and feature at least one large programmatic work) and Chamber Music. In addition to this, the orchestra participates in an annual performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony featuring a 10,000 person choir (sponsored by

Suntory (commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and ...

and held at

Osaka-jō Hall is a multi-purpose arena located in the Kyōbashi, Osaka, Kyōbashi area of Osaka, Japan. The hall opened in 1983 and can seat up to 16,000 people. Built on a site area of , part of its form uses stone walls, modeled after those of Osaka Castle ...

) and makes at least one annual appearance on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

's weekly television program " ntitled Concert (Japanese: 題名のない音楽会).

Members

The orchestra employees a fixed number of core members (selected through auditions held around the world) in addition to "associate" and "affiliate" members.

Training element

Although it is first and foremost a professionally performing orchestra, the HPAC Orchestra was founded with the aim of having a training element as well. It is only similar to other training orchestras (such as the

New World Symphony Orchestra The New World Symphony is an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida. Established in 1987, the organization is a training ensemble for young musicians in preparation for professional careers in classical music. Since 2011, the ...

) in that there is a limited contract length (three years) and age limit (35 at time of signing the contract).

References

External links

* *
Asahi TV's "Untitled Concert"

Suntory's "1万人の第九"

Video of the 2008 Suntory "1万人の第九"
{{authority control Japanese orchestras Musical groups from Hyōgo Prefecture