I went to Matsumoto city, Nagano prefecture for the Saito Kinen Orchestra concert on a gorgeous train ride along Chuo Line with endless trees and mountains. The concert hall was buzzing with people with expectation of the exciting evening. During the time of the Saito Kinen Festival, the city of Matsumoto gets unusual number of visitors and activities every year so every road is crowded and there is a LONG line for taxi!
This is the third year in a row that I come to the concert, but the first to attend the evening concert. The audience of Saito Kinen reminds me of the audience I see at Carnegie Hall and/or Lincoln Center in NYC. They are hard-core group, though they do NOT act like one.
The program included Overture-Fantasy “Romeo and Juliet” by Tchaikovsky, Bartok Piano concert No. 3 played by Peter Serkin, and Symphony No. 4 by Tchaikovsky conducted by Diego Matheuz.
When I heard the first piece, I was overwhelmed! The music was so beautiful that you feel that you are given a new life. Music connects people beyond borders of any kind, as you need no words, no translation and just hits you with its beauty.
The audience was enthusiastic throughout and after the concert. The conductor, Diego Matheuz, was fantastic and so was Peter Serkin. A huge thumbs up!
Yoko Ishikura is a Professor at Hitotsubashi University ICS in the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy in Japan. She has held positions as a professor at the School of International Politics, Economics and Business of Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, as a consultant at McKinsey and Company Inc. Japan and a visiting professor at Darden School.
Professor Ishikura is a consultant to a number of multinational companies and has been a frequent speaker at management conferences, seminars, and workshops throughout the world. She was a member of the Regulatory Reform Committee for the Japanese government and the International Competitiveness Commission for METI. She is currently a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum.
She is the author of Strategic Shift from OR choices to AND paradigm, Building Core Skills of Organization , and the co-author of the following publications: Managing Diversity in the 21st Century, Strategy for Cluster Initiatives in Japan , and Building a Career to the World Class Professionals – all in Japanese. Her books in English include: Asian Advantage, Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management and Trust and Antitrust in Asian Business Alliances.
Professor Ishikura’s current research interests are focused on global competition, innovation, and knowledge management. She received her BA from Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan; MBA from Darden School, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia; and DBA from Harvard Business School.
