Hello everybody. Today I would like to tell you about my visit and concerts in Tohoku, the northern regions of Japan where the tsunami hit 2 years ago. The name of the concert tour was “Kizuna Concert”. Kizuna means a strong connection in the heart between people. It is a special Japanese word that we do not have in English. I visited 3 elementary schools in Tohoku and had the opportunity to perform for the children there. I also had a “Kizuna Concert” at the Kawai shop in Sendai and at the Arte Liebe in Yokohama.

Two years ago I received an email from a high school girl soon after the disaster. She wrote to me that she and her cousin liked me when they saw me on Youtube. I didn’t know about them, but she said they always loved watching me play the piano. The girl wrote to me very sadly that her cousin had died in the Tsunami, and she said she wanted my picture and autograph to bring to where her cousin sleeps. I was so sad. I could tell from the email that she was in such grief and sorrow and I wished so hard that I could do something for her. My mom and I sent the package including my messages, autographs and the bracelets I made for both the girl and her cousin. I wished I could have done more for them. I wished I could have traveled to Japan right then and comforted her. The news on TV showed me so many people in pain and grief for loosing family, friends and homes. I wished very hard that I could go there and help people physically, but because I was still a kid, I couldn’t. I felt so helpless. Fundraising was all I could think I could do, but I promised myself that I will go to Tohoku when it is the right time for me.

After two years have passed since the devastating disaster, I became 12 years old, and I had a strong desire to visit the people of Tohoku and play piano for them because I thought that is what I could do for them now. I thought maybe my friend could hear me in heaven and be happy. After finding out about her, it has become my wish for a long time to visit Tohoku.

It was last January, 2013 When I mentioned to my friends, Mr. & Mrs. Markovich here in Los Angeles, that I always have wanted to do something for the victims of the Tsunami in Japan. They introduced me to their friend, Ms. Michiko Nakagawa in Japan. She is well connected to people in Japan in all kind of business, science and arts. Ms. Nakagawa became interested in my wish and introduced me to her friend, Mr. Akira Inoue. He is the founder of AJL, short for All Japan Line. AJL is a piano moving company in Japan. They also have a project to support Tohoku, by delivering donated pianos to schools and people who are in need of one. Mr. Inoue became interested in me. He offered me a chance to go to Tohuku with AJL and play piano for children at schools. I was really touched by that idea because that is also what I was hoping to do if I could go to Tohoku! We started working towards one wish – “To make the children smile with the sound of the piano”.
So, I went to Tohoku with Mr. Inoue, Mr. Teruchika Sakamoto, and Mr.Teruaki Wakou from AJL.

March 21.
The first place I went to was the Omose Elementary School in Kesennuma. AJL was giving the school a grand piano, and they gave me the honor to be the first person to ever play on it at that school. And then, they let me sign my name on it! I would like to thank the Inaba Family and the Music Plaza M.M.Land for preparing and organizing the concert. I was so touched that the children and everyone at the school welcomed me and let me play piano for them. Everyone in the Tohoku area had a really difficult time during the disaster and it is still hard for them. I was happy that I could bring some joy and happiness with music. After the concert, the children’s smile made me the happiest person in the world.

Before I went to the Omose Elementary school, the people from AJL took me around in Kesennuma. Near the ocean, it didn’t look anything like a town was there before. There were only few buildings that were strong enough not to get washed away, and the flooring of the houses on the ground. There was an unbelievably big ship in the middle of the road, about a mile away from the ocean. It was being held up by long poles to keep it from tilting over. I was really sad and imagined how scared everybody was when the tsunami came.It happened in March, and I imagined the water must have been really cold in the frozen temperature.It was and is still hard for me to take in the heartbreaking reality, and if it is for me, I think it is much harder for people who actually had experienced the terror.it was snowing. It was snowing when I was there, too. I looked around, and I just couldn’t believe there used be a wall of trees to protect the people from a tsunami. In a place where 70,000 trees stood, only 1 was left. This tree is called the “Miraculous Pine Tree”. I thought the tree was the symbol of courage, and it taught me to keep working hard even in the most difficult situations.

I couldn’t say a word when I saw a school that was terribly destroyed by the tsunami in Ishinomaki. The Kadowaki Elementary School, a three story high building, went under the water, and the  walls were burned by a fire caused by the gas that leaked from the cars. All students who were at school were evacuated to the hill behind the school safely. However, some students who were not at the school lost their lives or remain missing. I was so sad to hear that. It must have been so scary for them. I imagined they must have had their dreams of when they grew up. I want to work hard towards their dreams. My dream is to be able to help people with my piano playing. For that, I made myself promise that I will keep working hard.

March 22.
I also performed the next morning and the afternoon for the children at the Omagari Elementary school and the Teizan Elementary school in Ishinomaki. Ms. Kana Waku, pianist from Sendai hosted the concert for me. I had amazing experiences at both schools when all the children sang a song with my accompaniment! The song was called “Hana wa Saku” meaning “Flowers will bloom”. The song tells me the importance of remembering your loved ones,  forward with your strength and love to others. Soon, I hope to show you a video of us singing that song. It meant so much to me to do the performance with the children. I had a hard time not to cry while I was playing that song!

March 23
I performed at the Kawai shop in Sendai for the last concert in Tohoku. It was so touching that many people came to support us. The city of Sendai is the biggest city in Tohoku There were so many people and stores and lots of busy streets! Sendai City was not hit by the tsunami, fortunately, but I heard that the earthquake had shaken many buildings there. But, the city now looks beautiful. There are tall sky scrapers and buildings and lots of stores and cars. It was a very exciting city.

March 24
In the morning, as I stood at the Sendai train station, I had to say good-bye to Tohoku and the people from AJL because I had another “Kizuna Concert” in Yokohama which is 206 miles (331km) from Sendai. And the people from AJL had to go back to Nagoya, southwest of Japan. I didn’t want to say goodbye because we became like a family. I didn’t want to leave Tohoku because I really loved the people there. In the train going to Yokohama, I thought that I was very glad that I came. When I arrived to Shin-Yokohama, Ms. Nakagawa was waiting for me and my mom. We took the train together to Yokohama, then went to our hotel. I rehearsed at the very beautiful restaurant called “Arte Liebe”, where I was going to perform.

March 26
I performed for everybody as the “kizuna concert in Yokohama”. It was a very memorable last concert of the “Kizuna Concert” trip. I was a little sad that the Kizuna concerts had ended already. This time I received tremendous help from “Team Yogoro”; Ms. Michiko Nakagawa, Ms. Kyoko Kondou, and Ms. Tomoko Nishikawa. They helped me organize and plan the concert. It was a luncheon, so everybody had lunch together first, and then I performed.

Everyone who came was really kind and supportive of Tohoku.
We also sang the song “Hana wa Saku” like we did in the elementary schools in Tohoku.
I was really touched that people from all over Japan really care for people in Tohoku.

Mr. Inoue and Mr. Sakamoto came to Yokohama to support me again, all the way from Nagoya. I was so surprised and happy! The “Kizuna Concert” tour was a great success thanks to everyone’s help and support.
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What I was most impressed is that all of the people in Tohoku were so kind and so warm even though they went through a lot of terrifying experiences. Many people lost their homes, schools, offices, and even friends and family by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami. Very sadly, 20,000 people have passed away.

When I visited schools, the principals told me many stories about the day of the disaster. Because I’m from America, I was glad to hear that the American Army was a big help to the people of Tohoku clearing the remains of the buildings from the streets and cleaning the schools and the community halls where refugee people were coming to live. I also heard that the Army helped finding missing people. I was so sad to hear that there are still many people missing to this day.

I went on this trip with hope to encourage people in Tohoku, but their strength, love, and smile encouraged me. People were so kind and working so hard to recover the cities, and children were so sweet and full of smiles. I was so touched by them.

Now that I am back in America, I feel a desperate need to let people know about what I learned from this trip. I was so sad when I saw the terribly destroyed schools, homes, and buildings, and when I heard so many sad stories about when the tsunami hit the town. It must have been so sad and scary for everyone there. I don’t know if I can be as strong as they are, but when I saw everyone in Tohoku working so hard, I knew that I must keep doing my best. It had always been my dream to go to Tohoku and play piano for everyone, so I was so happy to be able to play music for them and try to heal their hearts. I learned from this trip that music can help people in their heart, and music is beautiful when it is played for someone rather than yourself.

Please allow me to write my messages to people of Tohoku here -
“Thank you for being so strong and always so kind even at difficult times. You have given me strength and courage. Please never give up. The world thinks about you and cares about you deeply. Thank you for letting me come play piano for you. I hope my music helped you a little. And I definitely want to  visit you again. My Kizuna to you is forever.”

Lastly, I would like to thank the following people for all of their help and support before and during this trip. I couldn’t have done anything without them.

Special thanks to:

AJL (All Japan Line Group)
Mr. Akira Inoue
Mr. Teruchika Sakamoto
Mr. Teruaki Wakou

Yogoro
Ms. Michiko Nakagawa
Ms. Kyoko Kondou
Ms. Tomoko Nishiyama

Kawai Europe
Mr. Arimune Yamamoto

Kawai Umeda
Mr. Chihiro Tomiyama

Kawai Sendai
Mr. Takashi Abe

M.M.Land
Mr. Seigo Inaba
Mrs. Miho Inaba
Ms. Arisa Inaba

Ms. Kana Waku

Japan Times
Mr. Toshiaki Ogasawara
Mr. Marc Davies

Omose Elementary School in Kesennuma, Miyagi
Ohmagari Elementary School in Higashi Matsuyama, Miyagi
Teizan Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi

Arte Liebe

Mr. Ed Markovich and Mrs. Taeko Markovich

Mr. John Perry and Mrs. Mina Perry

My parents
and

Thank you also for everyone who sent messages through Facebook or e mail to the children of Tohoku.

Love always,
Umi Garrett

This year I was invited to play in two concerts in Poland. It was my first time to visit Poland, so I was so excited! I had dreamed about playing in concert in Poland because I love Chopin, and I’m part Polish. My first concert was in a city called Tarnow near Krakow in Southern Poland. There, I had a concert with a wonderful Polish pianist, Mr. Krystian Tkaczewski who kindly invited me to Poland.

The concert was a great success, and it was really fun! I was in Tarnow for about 4 days and in Krakow for 2 days, so I got to see the town and ate lots of Polish food! Yum!
What I love about Poland is that there is a lot of nature and beautiful forests. I loved taking pictures of them.
I also had a great time visiting Krakow. Before departing to Poland, I went to the library and got a lot of books about Poland and read its history. It was hard for me to know that so many terrible things happened during the war, but I thought it was important for me to know. I feel very fortunate and I am grateful that I could visit the country like Poland. It meant a lot to me. People there were also so nice and kind.

Next time, I will tell you about my second concert in Poland.
See u soon.
Love,
Umi

It was my first ever 90 minute solo recital, and it was super fun!
Please click here if you would like to see and listen to some of my performance in Houston.
It was also my first time to go to Houston, so I was so excited!

I performed at a very pretty church called the Northwood Presbyterian Church.It had a really high ceilings and really colorful and beautiful stained glass windows! The acoustic was really nice, too!

Concert program was like this:
Sonata No.17 in d minor, Op.31 No.2 – Beethoven
Etudes Op.10 No.3 in E Major & No.4 in c-sharp minor & No.5 in G-flat Major – Chopin
Three Preludes – Gershwin
Ballade No.2 in F Major, Op.38 – Chopin
Nocturnes Op.Posth. No.20 in c-sharp minor & No.21 in c minor – Chopin
Sonata No.11 in A Major, K331 “Alla Turka” – Mozart
Scherzo No.2 in b minor, Op.31 – Chopin

Thanks to everyone, the concert went well, and I was really happy that everyone liked it. It was a long concert, so thank you everyone for listening and staying for 2 hours! I had a blast! And it was an amazing experience to me.
And the people in Houston are really nice and kind.
I really hope I can come back to Houston again!

See you soon!
Love,
Umi

There was a big typhoon though, while I was down in Osaka! I was almost blown away before I got to the competition building!
I also had shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to go back to Tokyo that I was going to barely make if I hurry after I play in the competition. The competition was running late a little, and I finished playing 30min later than it was planed. So right after I finished playing, I ran like crazy in my big poofy dress, sweating, in the rain, to the train station! I was so worried we would miss the train.
Well, because of the typhoon, the train was cancelled.
The New-Osaka Station was packed with people who lost their trains that night!
After lots of waiting, we got train tickets for the next morning.

Well, thank you for reading my news. It was certainly an exciting experience in Osaka!
Thank you so much for all of your support and help! I hope to see you soon!

Love,
Umi
P.S. In the pictures to the right, I’m making Osaka speciality food, “Takoyaki” and “Okonomiyaki”.

Hello! I’m in a middle of a big long trip in Europe right now. I had a competition in Budapest, a recital in Assisi, a joint concert in Poland, and a music festival in Amalfi. I’m practicing piano in Rome right now, and heading to Poland on the 19th.

I want to share with you one good news,,,,
With a humble and appreciative manner, I would like to tell you that I recently won 1st prize in the international Chopin piano competition in Budapest, Hungary. It’s called “Chopin Plus” International Chopin Piano Competition, and it took place in the beautiful city, Budapest from June 18th to 25th.
Everyone was amazing. I learned so much by listening to all the great young contestants from all over the world. Listening to them was the most important part of being in this competition. I was very honored to receive the prize because I worked really hard everyday for it, and it was my first European competition.
I was also able to learn that I need to keep working hard to improve and fix many things in my piano playing. Also, I learned how to manage a limited practice time for a performance, to overcome and control the pressure and nervousness, and to be always positive and do the best no matter what the condition I am in. So, I’m glad that I participated in this competition.

The most challenging part was that I had to get used to the area of Budapest quickly to get to the competition site, prepare myself for the competition repertoires and during that, I had to prepare for my Italy performance, too, at the same time.

I arrived to Budapest on June 14th, and the competition started on June 17th and went on till 25th. There were two rounds of competitions.
On June 20th, I made it to the 2nd round and played for the judges. Next day I left for Assisi, Italy, to play in a concert.
I played in Assisi on June 23rd and came back to Budapest on 24th for the result and the closing ceremony.

I got back to Hungary at 1am and I had to get up and get on the subway train in 7 hours to go to the concert hall where the closing ceremony took place. I was assigned to play in the ceremony, so I was practicing the whole train ride to the concert hall on the air.
The whole thing was very exciting.

Thank you so much for wishing me luck, and sending me lots of encouragements!!

I will make sure to write more about beautiful Budapest city ( I went to Liszt Museum and visited Liszt Academy!) with lots of pictures!

Ciao!
Love,
Umi

Hello, Everyone!

Today I want to tell you about the fund raising concert I had at Mr. & Mrs. Markovich’s house in Thousand Oaks, California. Mr. & Mrs. Markovich were so kind to arrange this concert for me to raise funding for my studying and performing in Europe for this summer. I appreciate Mr. & Mrs. Markovich and Uncle Jack from “Pianos Wholesale” in Temple City for making this fund raising concert possible. I want to say thank you to everyone who come to the concert, and I appreciate everyone who gave me the contribution. I will remember your help, and I will work hard!

Mr. & Mrs. Markovich had a beautiful new Steinway piano that I truly enjoyed playing on and was so honored to be able to perform on. I played Beethoven Sonata No.14, Chopin Etude Op.10 No.3, Nocturne Op. Posth No.20, Scherzo Op.31 No.2, and more.
Mr. & Mrs. Markovich prepared beautiful invitations and programs for all of the guests. Uncle Jack, Vivian, and John from the Pianos Wholesale gave me a wonderful present, too. It was a teddy bear but not any ordinary teddy bear. It was a 53 inches tall teddy bear, the same height as me! I named her Jackie after Uncle Jack. I tried to sleep with her that night, but she was so big I didn’t fit in the bed! I was practically hanging off the edge of my bed.

At the end of the concert, Taeko-san (Mrs. Markovich) gave me a very special Japanese “Hagoita”- a traditional decorated wooden paddle.

It is beautifully decorated with real silk Kimono fabrics! It means a lot for me to receive such a special meaningful present from Taeko-san. Now it is placed in my piano room, and I will cherish this special Hagoita forever and ever.
It was a special concert and a really fun day!

Love,
Umi
P.S. Stay tight for my next blog!

Today I want to tell you about my Liepaja concert and the awesome things that happened there!
I had two concerts with Liepaja Symphony Orchestra in Riga and Liepaja, but today I want to talk about Liepaja. Liepaja is one of the three big cities in Latvia. From California where I live, it takes all day to get there. First I flew to Amsterdam, then flew to Riga. From Riga it was about three hours drive to city of Liepaja. Oh, by the way! I was in the airplane magazine!! It is Baltic Airline from Ameterdam to Riga. It was very surprising.

Before and after the concert, I had a lot of time to tour the city. I went to the beach and found a lot of pretty shells. It was my first time to see a frozen beach! It was really cool! And cold. Haha. My friends, Kristians and Anete drove me to a fort and also showed me a Russian Church. It was a beautiful building as you can see it in the picture here.

I LOVE Europe because there are so many different cultures in very close distance. I’m part Lithuanian, Polish, German, Irish, so I feel a little bit like home whenever I’m close to those countries. Plus, the food is so yummy in Europe! I think Latvia has the best chocolates! I kept finding good candies everywhere!

And what I liked the most was after-the-concert-party at our hotel! All the performers, guests and Maestro Lakstigala came. I had a Latvian sour yogurt drink, and it was so good!
It was so sad to say good bye to every one at the end. My flight to go home was at 5am, so I couldn’t stay too long at the party, but when I came down stairs to ride in a taxi, everyone was still there. So I was able to say good bye to them again. I hope I will see everyone again soon! I miss everyone already so much!!

In a next blog, I think I will write about my San Francisco trip. So please come back here again!
Thank you for reading!
Love,
Umi (=^x^=)

I had some time to tour the city of Riga before the concert and after. Riga is so beautiful! The buildings look like a doll house and very colorful as you can see in the picture. It was really really cold outside, but I still played with snow. 

It was already late at night when we started driving back to our hotel in Liepaja. I slept through whole three hours ride! 
I still have one more concert in Liepaja to tell you about in the next blog, so please be sure to come back!
Thank you!!
Love,
Umi (=^x^=)

Hi, everyone! I’m in Latvia right now! I just had the second rehearsal today with Liepaja Symphony Orchestra and also had a TV interview. Liepaja Symphony is an amazing symphony!
I also had a pre-mini-concert at Liepājas mūzikas vidusskola (music school). They are very nice to let me practice there.
It is very cold here, but I love Liepaja! It is an awesome place! Tomorrow is the first concert in Riga!! Please wish me luck!!
I will write about the concerts next time!
Love,
Umi (=^x^=)